Three For Three
by WhatATragicComedy
Summary: SG1/SGA1 crossover. Team fic with a J/S romance throughout. Jack tried to smile but knew it came out as a grimace. Walking into her lab, he said simply, "I'm three for three."
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: I have fully written this story so no need to worry about starting it and then me getting a case of writer's block. I'll be posting one chapter per day until they are all up.

It's not necessary by any means to read my previous stories to get this one at all but if you would like to read the Sam/Jack back round of this story, I would suggest reading my short stories Content, Anniversary, and Baby's Grand Entrance.

As usual, I didn't write this to make money and have no connection with production of Stargate.

Also, just a little side point, this is my first attempt at writing an adventure based story. So I can't guarantee anything about how good it is. Scientific and medical jargon go over my head so those parts are hard for me to write and are probably severely lacking but I'm hoping that you enjoy the story, my faults withstanding.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

"Hank! How are things?," Jack greeted as he walked into the General's office.

"Jack," he paused, looking down at his watch, "You're here awful early today?"

"It's Friday. I was hoping to sneak in and steal my wife for the rest of the day."

"Good luck. She's got herself a new toy to play with."

Jack grimaced dramatically. "Thanks."

Hank chuckled but before he could reply, the sound of an unscheduled off world activation had both men walking down into the control room.

"Walter, what have we got?," Landry briskly asked once they'd arrived.

"IDC coming in now, sir. It's SG-6."

Hank frowned, his bushy eyebrows furrowing together. "They aren't due back for another three hours. Open the iris."

"Yes, sir."

The metal of the iris grated open, SG-6 quickly stepping on the ramp. All members seemed to be intact and accounted for.

"Major Andrews, report," Hank called over the speaker.

"Yes, sir. We've found an obelisk near the gate with Ancient writing on it. Davies says that there's a slight EM signal. We'd like to request someone with the Ancient gene to come back with us, sir."

Hank saw Jack perk up right before his eyes, looking for all the world like an eager puppy ready to go for a walk.

"I'm available." Jack smiled with a 'pick me pick me' grin on his face.

Landry raised an eyebrow. "What happened to sneaking Colonel Carter away?"

Jack tried to appear serious. "Well, as you said, she has a new toy. Wouldn't want to interrupt her fun or anything. Besides, I can go, use my magic touch, and still be back in time for dinner. No problem."

"Of course it has nothing to do with the fact that you just want to go off world."

Jack looked incredulous. "Of course not."

"Uh-huh. Go gear up and I'll let the team know."

"Sweet."

Jack took in a deep joyful breath as the wormhole closed behind him.

Captain Davies smiled. "Good to get off world again, sir?"

"Oh yes."

Jack took in the sights. Well, if you could call it sights. There was nothing but dirt for a good mile and what appeared to be the beginning of shrubbery past that. The obelisk stood half a klick from the gate.

"Just couldn't have been a beach planet, could it?"

The group walked the short distance companionably and Jack smiled to himself at the banter between the teammates. Made him think of his own team and Jack had a sentimental moment, wishing they could go back to those days. Or not go back really, rather go out together again. His wondering thoughts took them to their destination and Jack stared at the bland stone with a sense of disappointment. The obelisk stood no more than fifteen feet tall and no wider on each side than an average man.

"This is it?"

"Yes, sir."

"Okay. What do you want me to do?"

The team's linguist, Dr. Mary Burrows, moved closer to the obelisk dusting one of the sides off. "There's some writing on each side, but it's too faint to be made out. I'm thinking that the words actual light up when they've had contact with someone of the ATA gene."

Jack shrugged and put his hand on the stone. Nothing happened. "Well, there goes that idea."

Mary frowned. "Maybe if you think about lighting the words up? Sir."

Jack sighed but complied, placing his hand on one side of the stone again. He closed his eyes for about five seconds and still nothing. Peeking an eye open, he looked and simply said, "Nope."

Major Andrews looked to his team. "Any ideas?"

Jack casually walked around the stone and stopped when reaching one side and feeling a slight difference in the ground beneath his boots. Kicking some dirt away, he found he was standing on more stone. It started to light up as he stood there and Jack was about to make a comment about finding the 'on' button when he heard a familiar whirring sound. He snapped his head up but it was too late. Restraints held Jack's head firmly as bright lights filled his vision.

Jack woke up, hearing the familiar ka-woosh of the stargate.

"Oh god." He grabbed his head. "What happened?"

When no one responded, Jack opened his eyes to see four solemn faces. The events of the day slowly came back to him and all he could think was 'not again'.

Two of Major Andrews team went to help Jack stand up, but he brushed them off. "I'm fine."

"We're cleared to go through, sir."

Jack nodded, walking through the wormhole into the confines of the SGC. What the hell was he gonna tell Sam?

General Landry called through the speaker. "So, what was it, Jack?"

Jack frowned angrily. "Oh, nothing really. Just another one of those damn head-suckers. Your major here can tell you all about it."

Jack started down the ramp to leave the gate room.

"Jack?"

"I'm going to find Sam," he shouted over his shoulder, not waiting to hear the response.

Jack didn't stop until he reached her door, his stomach churning. He'd gone to see her right before he left to let her know he was going off world. She'd smiled cheekily at his exuberance over going through the gate again. And look where it got him. She'd already banned him from ever going to Antarctica ever again. She said he hadn't been there yet without getting into trouble so she was going to make sure he never went again. Looks like Ancient devices were going to be added to the list. If there was even going to be a list anymore, Jack thought sickly.

Sam hadn't noticed him yet. Her mind completely transfixed by the metal box sitting in front of her, jumbles of wires spilling out of it. He had too much to lose now. He couldn't lose her and Nate. Not now.

"Hey."

She looked up with a smile, but quickly frowned when she saw his face.

"What happened?" Her eyes scanned over his body, looking for any apparent injuries. On finding none, she held his eyes with a sense of dread.

Jack tried to smile but knew it came out as a grimace. Walking into her lab, he said simply, "I'm three for three."

Her head tilted slightly to the left. "Jack?"

He could see her chest rising and falling faster as he reached her lab table, her mind forming what he could mean. Jack saw the second she realized it in her eyes. Right when he reached her side and put his hands on her elbows.

Sam's eyes filled with tears and she shook her head, unwilling to believe it. "No. It wasn't ...you didn't..."

"Sam."

"No." She put her hands on his chest, whether to push him away or pull him closer neither of them knew. "No. Why would you do that, Jack? The Asgard are gone!"

She wouldn't look him in the eye. His voice was soft as he answered her. "I didn't know it was there until it was too late."

"No," she choked out, hoping maybe if she said it enough it wouldn't be true.

"Sam, look at me." He lifted her chin with his finger. When their eyes locked, he told her firmly, "We'll find a way."

"How? The Asgard are gone. They can't remove the repository from your mind. There's no one to..."

"Sam." He placed his hands on either side of her face. Leaving no room for doubt, he said again, "We'll find a way. I will not leave you now that I am finally with you."

Her bottom lip trembled against her will, but she nodded her head anyway. "Okay."

"Good. Now c'mere."

Jack pulled her off the stool into his arms.

They were still holding each other when an airmen turned into Sam's lab with a "Sir?" On seeing the couple, the SF stammered, "Oh, I'm sorry. Sir. Ma'am."

Jack let go of his wife and turned towards the airman. "Tell General Landry I'm on my way and have Dr. Jackson paged to the briefing room."

The SF nodded and turned without a word.

Sam brushed her tears away quickly and Jack tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear.

"Let's go get this briefing over with, k? Hank's still new to all this head sucking stuff."

Sam gave him a stern look to let him know it was so not the time for jokes, but nodded anyway, determined to keep her composure.

Daniel got to the briefing room at the same time as they did and eyed Jack's BDU's curiously.

"So. What's going on?" Daniel asked, wondering what on earth he, Jack, and Sam were doing at a briefing with SG-6.

When no one else appeared to want to answer, General Landry turned to Dr. Jackson while still eying Jack and saying, "Jack went with SG-6 to a planet with an obelisk they believed to have been made by the Ancients. When he was there, he had the..." Hank paused, forming the new word cautiously, " ...repository forcibly downloaded into his head."

Daniel snapped his eyes to Jack.

"Jack..."

He didn't look up from the table. "I know."

"But the..."

"I know, Daniel!"

Daniel looked over at Sam, who was also resolutely examining the briefing room table.

"What do we do?"

Sam answered. "The Asgard database. The answer has to be there."

Daniel raised his eyebrows in question. "So all we have to do is find it?"

"It's not that simple, Daniel. The wealth of information is far greater than any one lifetime's work and they didn't exactly label everything in an index for us. If we can even find the information we need, that's not to say that we'll be able to understand how to do it."

Jack had stopped listening to the conversation after his last comment to Daniel. His anger to the situation had finally caught up to him now that he had broken the news to Sam. His jaw was clenched so tight that Jack was pretty sure TMJ might be in his future. If he even had a future. Damn, he was pissed off. Stupid friggin' Ancients and their dumb legacies. Hadn't those people ever heard of warning signs? Big blinking arrows that declared, "Caution: Head-sucker ahead. Your fron may or may not turn into a pile of goo on contact!"

Knowing that now he was 'compromised' Jack would have to ask Landry to leave the base, Jack butted in, "Request permission to leave the base and get things sorted out at home, Hank."

"You know I can't let you do that, Jack. Not with what I have read about what this is going to do to you."

Daniel intervened, "Actually, sir, both times this has happened to Jack before he followed a definite pattern. It took a few days before any, uh, changes started."

"We'll return the first time I start spouting Ancient, Hank."

Sam cut in in full military mode, "Sirs, I should really be starting on the database."

Jack was clearly frustrated and very nearly rolled his eyes as he sighed. "Sam..."

"We need as much time as we can get to figure this out, sir!" Her words came out a little harsher than she had intended but she held Jack's gaze firmly.

His jaw tightened for a moment before he answered. "You'll start on it first thing tomorrow, _Colonel_. Forgive me if I want to go home and spend the night with my wife and son before this thing _overrides my brain_!"

The room was deathly quiet after Jack's outburst. Sam closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip, taking one deep breath to calm back the tears. Reaching underneath the table, she interlaced her fingers with Jack's.

Landry broke the silence. "Alright, Jack. You're free to go home tonight but I'd like you both back in the morning."

Jack nodded, no longer wanting to speak. Rising from the table, Jack and Sam walked out together, Jack still holding firmly to her hand.


	2. Chapter 2

Jack let Sam drive on the way to pick up Nathan from the daycare. The trip was made in silence. Loosely holding Sam's right hand, Jack absently ran his thumb over the back of her fingers as he stared out the window, both of them lost in their own thoughts. Sam pulled to a stop in front of the daycare.

"I'll get him," Jack said even as he opened the door.

He walked into the building, greeting Suzie at the front and asking for Nate.

She went to the playroom and Jack bowed his head, sighing deeply. He was so stupid. He just had to go off world again, didn't he?

"Daddy!"

Nate came running out of the back room, big grin plastered on his face, and threw his arms out to Jack. Jack bent down and caught him in a big hug and instantly his anger washed away. He was shocked to find himself fighting back a sob.

"Hey, buddy!" he greeted, giving his son a genuine smile, even as he fought the lump in his throat. "You have fun today?"

"Uh-huh. Mommy here too?"

"Yep. She's out in the car. Let's go, squirt."

Jack picked up his boy, nodding a quick goodbye to Suzie, and listened to Nathan ramble away nonsensically about his day all the way to the truck.

"Hi, Mommy!" Nathan waved from the backseat where Jack was buckling him in his car seat.

"Hey, baby!" Sam reached back and touched his leg. "How was your day?"

Nathan started to tell her about 'dinawours' and 'rocks' but frowned when he saw her eyes shining with unshed tears.

"Mommy okay?"

Sam pasted a big toothy smile on her face. "Mommy's fine, baby. Don't you worry."

Jack had gotten into the truck by then and Sam looked over at him to find him staring back at her intently. He'd been listening to Nate and her talking and got caught up in the normalcy of the moment. Jack leaned over, pulling her face closer to his with one hand, and kissed her chastely but with a desperate edge.

"Ewwww," was heard from the peanut gallery. Jack and Sam both smiled against each others lips and Jack put on a serious face as he turned to the back seat.

"It is not 'ewww' when I kiss your mother."

Nathan wrinkled up his nose, but said, "Okay. But jus' Mommy."

Sam laughed. "Definitely just Mommy," she affirmed, sneaking a glance at Jack.

He grinned back at her, stealing her hand and placing a kiss on her knuckles. "Wouldn't catch me kissing anybody else." he told her seriously. Looking back at Nathan, Jack added, "Well, except maybe Nate. Is it okay if I give you kisses, Nate?"

"Yep. You're kisses go," Nathan made a loud kissing smack sound.

Jack and Sam both chuckled, thankful for the levity their son provided them.

* * *

Sam threw away the take out boxes and watched Jack playing with Nathan from the kitchen doorway. To anyone else, it looked like a normal night. Jack was throwing Nathan up in the air, tickling him, and chasing him all around the living room. This was typically when Sam would warn Jack to be easy with him, otherwise Nathan's dinner might decide to make a reappearance. Instead, she watched them, holding back fresh tears when they both fell on the couch in a giggling pile, exhausted.

Sam blinked away the tears and walked to the end of the couch. Nathan lay sprawled on Jack's chest, determinedly fighting to keep his eyes open as Jack ran his finger's through the boy's hair.

"You wanna give him his bath?"

Jack raised his gaze from Nathan to her and nodded. Lifting Nathan up in the air, Jack announced, "C'mon, kiddo. Bath time."

Nate's eyes snapped open. Jack tossed his son over his shoulder, causing the boy to giggle.

"Ducky?"

"Yep. Ducky will be there."

"Pane?"

"Plane, too."

"Bot?"

"And Bart."

"K."

Jack tickled his side as he carried Nate up the stairs, Sam following behind the pair. She went into Nathan's room for some pj's while Jack took care of bath time. Giving the boys plenty of time for play, Sam busied herself with picking up stray toys and grabbing Nate's favorite pair of dinosaur pj's. When Sam went to give the pj's to Jack, she spotted the calender on Nate's wall. They were just a week away from Nathan's second birthday. Another wave of emotion washed over her when she thought about the possibility that Jack might not be there.

Jack and Nate were busy having a squirt war. Nathan armed with the water squirting Bart doll while Jack had the equally potent rubber ducky. When Nate decided Jack wasn't getting wet enough, he resorted to good old fashioned splashing. Settling things down a bit, Jack gave Nate a shampoo Mohawk and Nate retaliated by giving his Daddy a bubble beard. Jack finally declared bath time done when he himself was more than a little soaked.

Bundling Nate up in the towel, Jack quickly dried him off. Having Nate grab the top of the towel over his shoulders, he said, "K, kiddo. Go find your mom to get you in some pj's."

Nathan alerted Sam to his coming with the stamping of his little feet down the hall and she was greeted by her naked son, using his towel as nothing more than a cape.

"There's my little man. Ready for your pj's?"

"Dinowoars!"

"Of course!"

Jack trailed into the room in his own pj's and Nate turned to him triumphantly. "I toad yous, Daddy! I win."

Sam looked at Jack incredulously.

Jack shrugged, unrepentant. "I went with the Air Force ones."

"Daddy weed?"

"Yeah, kiddo. I'll read. You gotta pick out your book though."

Nate kicked his legs, trying to run to his bookshelf, even though Sam was in the middle of putting on his Pull-Up.

"Nathan, hold still for a minute, baby. Let me get you in your pj's and then you can go pick a book."

Nate sighed dramatically, lifting his arms in the air so Sam could put his shirt on.

"Done?"

"No, I'm not done! You still need your pants, Mister."

Sam tickled his sides, making him giggle and squirm. Patting his butt once his pants were in place, she said, "Now you can go get your book."

Nate ran over to his bookshelf and eyed it seriously. "Bofe weed?"

"If you hurry up, we'll both read."

Nate quickly grabbed two books off the shelf and ran back to his bed. Jack went to lift him, but Nate pushed him away.

"I do it."

Jack raised his hands in surrender. "Okay. Okay. You're the boss."

Looking at Nate's selections, Jack couldn't help but grin. He swore that Nathan just _got_ his sense of humor. His first book for tonight was 'Sam I Am', a present Jack had gotten cheekily for Sam to read to him. Nathan only let Sam read that book to him, no one else.

The next book was Nathan's favorite. All about dinosaurs. Nathan was obsessed with anything dinosaurs.

By the time Jack and Sam finished their books, Nathan was fighting sleep hard. Jack had no doubt which parent he took after there.

"Goodnight, Nathan."

Sam kissed his forehead and pulled the covers up, making sure he was all tucked in.

"Nigh, Mama. Wuv you."

"Love you, too, baby."

"Night, kiddo."

Nathan yawned, reaching up for a hug. Jack bent down and kissed his son's hair as he hugged him.

"Nigh, Daddy."

"I love you, Nate."

"Wuv yous, Daddy."

Jack closed the door to Nate's room and enveloped Sam in a hug, resting their foreheads together. He needed her comfort more than he was willing to admit. Jack had to believe that he was going to make it through this or he was going to lose it. He had to make them both believe that.

"Let's go to bed."

Sam made no protest and they walked down the hall together. Jack watched in silence as she changed into her night clothes and crawled into bed. They lay on their sides, facing one another.

"Jack..." Whatever she had planned to say died on her lips.

"You'll figure it out."

Her fingers drew nonsensical patterns on his chest. "How do you know?"

Jack grinned. "Because your Samantha Carter O'Neill, that's why." He stroked her cheek with his thumb. "You can do anything."

"What if I can't?"

"Not gonna happen."

"Jack!" she pleaded somewhat desperately.

He looked at her seriously before replying. "Then you'll grieve ...for a little while. And then you'll raise Nate and he'll be great, Sam. Another astro whiz adrenaline junkie who just happens to watch The Simpson's in his spare time."

Sam shook her head viciously, hot fat tears rolling out of her eyes. An uncontrollable sob broke loose in her chest and Jack closed the space between them, muffling her cries with his lips. She kissed him back fiercely, gripping his short hair in clenched fists. Jack shifted his position so that he was more or less on top of her. She pushed him back, making him rest over her on his elbows.

"No, Jack. You promise me. Promise me that if you ...if you die, you'll ascend."

"Carter..."

"No. Don't you Carter me right now. You damn well better ascend your ass and come back to me! Promise me, Jack. Please."

His brown eyes scanned over her face. Locking brown eyes with blue, he affirmed, "I promise. I'll do whatever it takes to come back to you."

She rewarded him with a watery smile. "Good."

Jack closed his eyes as she ran her thumbs through his eyebrows and across his cheeks. Turning his face into her palm, he kissed her flesh.

"I love you, Jack."

He met her eyes, both expressing more there than they ever could with words. Lowering his lips to hers, Jack kissed her tenderly and then buried his face in her neck, wrapping his arms around her body.

"I love you so much, Sam."

The desperation with which he said those words would be the only sign he showed of his fear, Sam knew. Always the strong one, her Jack.

Soft kisses ran up and down her neck and over her exposed collar bone. Rough stubble on his face tingled and sensitized her skin and long callused fingers sent shivers up her side as they grazed a path underneath her shirt. Jack kissed her lips and stared into her watery eyes.

Wiping away her tears, he softly commanded, "No more tears. Not tonight, Carter."

"Yes, sir," she whispered on a breath, even as he swept down to claim her mouth with his.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: I don't know any foreign languages so for those of you that do and can see how much I butchered things, I'm sorry. But seeing as how I don't actually know Ancient, I'm doing the best I can by using words I know they've used on the show and using an online Latin and Greek translator. And if I happen to not like the way either word sounds in those languages, I alter it a bit. So anyway, that's how 'my' Ancient gets made in this story.

* * *

Sam woke up with a start, her eyes jerking open in one swift motion. The room was dim, morning dawn's light just beginning to filter into the room. Jack's side of the bed was empty. Sam threw back the covers and after finding her discarded sleep clothes and putting them on, padded down the hall to find her husband. She didn't have to venture far as he was standing just inside Nate's doorway, watching him sleep.

Sam hugged to Jack's side, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Hey."

Jack curled his arm around her shoulders. "Hey. I didn't mean to wake you. I just ...wanted to watch him for a little while."

Sam looked over at their son, still deep in slumber, holding on to his earlobe like a security blanket. "You're gonna be here for his second birthday, Jack. And you'll be here for his sixteenth. And you'll see him graduate and get married."

"You seem pretty sure about that," he whispered, still staring at Nate.

"I am." And she realized she really was.

He looked down at her as she positioned herself more in front of him so she could hold him better. Scanning her face as if to find the answer, Jack asked, "How come?"

Meeting his eyes, she said simply, "Because you won't leave us behind."

He smiled, slightly and a little sadly, and kissed her forehead. Hearing a big yawn, they looked over to Nate's bed to find him stretching awake. Blinking his eyes open, Nathan looked at his parents critically.

"Whys in my woom?"

"Just waiting for you to wake up, sleepyhead."

"Me's up. Bekfist?", Nate cautiously asked as he crawled out from under the covers.

"Let's see, what could we have for breakfast? I'm kinda thinking pancakes," Jack suggested in an exaggerated tone. Innocently, he questioned, "What do you think, Nate?"

Nathan was already jumping up and down on his bed, chanting 'ancakes' over and over again. Jack snatched the boy over his shoulder and Nate giggled all the way downstairs.

Jack whipped up a huge pile of pancakes that there was absolutely no way the three of them could possibly finish off. Sam wasn't hungry as it was so when Jack put a plate with three overly large pancakes in front of her, she eyed it warily.

"Eat, Carter," he said with a kiss.

Sam glowered at him but the look was lost under the power of his raised eyebrow. Rolling her eyes, she picked up her fork to dig in and resolutely ignored her husband's triumphant smirk.

"Mmmm, yummy!"

Nathan was splattered in a healthy dosing of syrup on his face, hands, and pj's, happily munching down on his favorite breakfast item.

Jack chuckled. "Looks like somebody's gonna need another lavak rume this morning."

He glanced at Sam over his mug of coffee and saw her pained expression.

"What?"

She shook her head stiffly and focused all of her attention to cutting up her pancakes.

Jack set his mug down. "It's happening already, isn't it?"

She paused. "Just the once."

Jack's eyes darted all over the room, breakfast no longer a big enough distraction. Feeling the urge to fiddle with something in his hands, Jack looked at Nate.

"You almost done, buddy?"

Nate's blue eyes scanned over the remains of his pancakes seriously.

"I done." His tummy was very full.

Jack wet a wash cloth in the sink and began the process of unstickifying Nate as best he could.

"Nate, how _do_ you get syrup in your hair every time you eat pancakes?"

Nathan shrugged. "My's ed itses."

Sam smiled at Nate's scrunched face when Jack tried to clean up his mouth. "Go ahead and take his clothes off here and I'll put them in the wash."

Jack nodded in answer, stripping their boy down to his pull-up before taking him upstairs for a bath.

The rest of the morning went off without a hitch until Jack got Nathan dressed for the day.

"Daddy pay baw?"

"Sorry, kiddo. Daddy has to go to work for a few days."

"Nooooo! Pay bawwww!" Nate's bottom lip trembled and he broke down in tears.

"Nate..."

"I want Mommy!"

Nathan stormed from his room only slowing when he came to the top of the stairs. Sitting on his bottom, he scooted his way down, still crying in earnest.

Sam heard the cries from the kitchen and met Nathan in the living room.

"Baby, what's wrong? What happened?"

Nathan lifted his arms up to Sam to be held, gasping in breaths between his sobs.

"Daddy" Sob. "go" Sob. "work" Sob. "no" Sob. "pay" Sob. "baww".

"Oh, baby. It'll be okay. Daddy can play ball with you when he gets back." Running her fingers through his unruly brown hair, Sam continued, "You know Daddy doesn't like when he has to leave."

"Why Daddy go?"

Sam sighed inwardly at the oft heard question. Jack sometimes got stuck working in D.C. for a few days and Nathan hated it. He couldn't understand why Jack wasn't at home so he refused to talk to him on the phone while Jack was gone. It ripped Jack's heart out every time and plagued him with guilt.

Sam hugged Nathan to her chest where they sat on the couch, still running her fingers through his hair to calm him.

"Daddy's job is very important. What he does protects people and keeps everyone safe."

Nathan sniffed loudly. "I don't ike deedee."

"I know you don't like D.C." Sam didn't bother to correct his assumption. When Jack left, it meant D.C. for Nate.

Deciding a cheering up was in order, Sam said, "Now what's with this one socked look you got going on? Those bare toes look pretty tasty." Sam grabbed his sockless foot in her hand. "I might have to nibble on them."

Nate grinned and gave a big belly laugh as Sam play nibbled on his toes and tickled the bottom of his foot.

"Mommy! I can't beethe!"

"What? I can't hear you!", Sam shouted over his giggles.

"I can't beethe!"

"You can't breathe? Oh. Well, why didn't you just say so?", Sam teased as she righted him on her lap.

"I did, Mommy!"

Sam smiled. "Okay. Go find Daddy and have him put on your other sock."

"K."

Nate started to hop off Sam's lap but was halted by, "No need. I do deliveries."

Jack pushed off the hallway wall he had been leaning against, evidently having been watching them, holding the sock in his hand.

Sam smiled at him as Jack came and sat on the couch, pulling up the stray sock on his son's wiggling foot.

"I'm romel, Nate." Catching his mistake, Jack pursed his lips.

"I'm sorry," he articulated, as if to prove to himself as much as them he could still say it.

"It's k, Daddy." Nate switched laps, resting his knees on Jack's legs and wrapping his arms around his Daddy's neck. "Be back?"

"You betcha."

Jack knew Sam would figure it out, even if she didn't believe she could. The woman had defied the laws of physics for him. An alien database didn't stand a chance.

* * *

Jack and Sam reached the mountain by 0800. Knowing Sam was jumping at the bit to get working, he left her to her lab alone and went to find Daniel.

The archaeologist was nothing if not easy to find. Already buried in books and one cup of coffee down, Daniel didn't even notice Jack standing in his doorway.

"Well, Danny boy, looks like you and me get to be best friends again."

"And just what have we been for the past, uh, what? Fourteen years?"

Ignoring Daniel's comment, Jack plucked the book his friend was looking at off his desk.

"Look familiar?"

Face still toward the book, Jack raised his eyebrows and eyes to Daniel. "Should it?"

"It's Ancient."

"Ah." Jack placed the book back on the desk, treating it like it was contaminated. "Nope. You know it's all Greek to me."

"Good morning, boys."

Vala strolled into Daniel's office, practically draping herself over Daniel's left side. She peered at what he was working on, found it the usual boring drivel, and stole his coffee mug right out of his hand. Simply frowning in irritation, Daniel seemed to accept his fate with nothing more than a rolling of his bespeckled eyes. Jack found the whole scene endlessly amusing. He was glad to find that the spot of 'annoying the resident archaeologist' left vacant when he had first moved to Washington had been filled.

Sam frequently came home with tales of the two of them bickering and had declared that she was _thisclose _to locking them in a closet to either kill each other or make hot monkey love. And yes, she had actually used the words 'hot monkey love'. Jack could tell his friend was crazy about the space vixen. He'd seen the way Daniel looked at Vala when she wasn't aware of it. Why the spacemonkey hadn't done anything about it was beyond Jack but then he supposed he didn't really have much room to talk in that department.

Vala looked up from her newly acquired mug and smiled. "General."

Jack nodded. "Vala."

"What brings you by to see my Daniel this morning?"

Jack glanced at 'her' Daniel to see the man pursing his lips, eyes closed. Evidently, Daniel had not informed Vala of Jack's latest adventure. Vala also saw the look and astutely realized she'd missed out on something.

"What?"

"Vala," Daniel started, "now's really not the time to..."

"I got my head sucked by one of those Ancient ...head-sucking ...things." Jack helpfully told her.

"Oh! Well that doesn't sound pleasant. I must say, darling, you look remarkable for having a head hickey."

"What Jack means," Daniel expounded with his 'explain Jack to the aliens' face, "is he had the Repository of the Ancients downloaded into his brain against his will."

Vala remembered back to when Daniel had had Merlin's memories transferred to his brain. Mitchell had told her that General O'Neill had had such a thing happen to him twice before, and almost died.

"This is a bit of a nasty habit you have, General."

Jack smiled but it came out as more of a grimace.

"So, what do we do?"

"We let Sam and her team search through the Asgard database for a way to remove the information from Jack's brain. Jack's already had this happen twice before and Thor was able to remove it for him."

"Miss that little guy."

Anyone was saved from replying by an unscheduled off world activation warning. Though none of them really had to head up there anymore, all three took off to the control room to see what was going on.

"Hank, what's the news?" Jack asked upon reaching the control room.

"Data burst from Pegasus. A full scale Wraith fleet is on it's way to Atlantis."

"How many hives?"

"Twenty."

"They have no chance against that kind of attack," Daniel voiced in horror.

"How long til they reach Atlantis?"

General Landry looked grave. "They estimate three days at most."

Jack nodded sharply, his eyes glazed over in thought. Turning on his heels, he walked out of the control room without another word.

"Jack?", Daniel called after him.

When the older man didn't respond, Daniel shrugged at General Landry and followed after Jack. Daniel finally caught up to him once Jack reached Daniel's office. Pulling journal after journal off of the shelves, Jack flipped through them rapidly and discarded them on the floor.

"Jack, what are you doing?" Daniel gestured rapidly all around the disaster that was now his office.

"I don't know!"

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I don't know, Daniel!"

"The Repository," Daniel said with sudden realization.

"Ya think?"

Jack opened a leather bound hand written journal of Daniel's, muttering under his breathe as he read it's contents. As Daniel got closer, he heard the words coming out of Jack's mouth were Ancient.

"Hey! You said you couldn't read Ancient!"

"I lied," Jack muttered distractedly.

Daniel looked affronted. "Well, what are you looking for?"

"How many ways do I have to tell you 'I don't know'? Ego opear ignoros?" Jack's finger stopped mid-page. "Myrddin."

"Myrddin? You mean Merlin. What about Merlin?"

Jack looked up from the book. "I don't know. But it's important. What planet did you meet Merlin on?"

"Uh, we don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?!"

"We were transported with the, uh, obelisk thing." Daniel said, waving his hand up in the air.

"You had Merlin's memories and you don't remember the address?"

"Had, Jack. I _had_ his memories."

"Gate addresses."

Daniel and Jack looked at Vala with the same 'huh?' expression.

"Gate addresses. When Adria captured you, we tried going through a list of the last gate addresses used on the DHD's from the planets we'd been sent to to figure out where you were. Sam wrote them down in one of your journals, darling."

"Uh, then it should be in that one," Daniel said, pointing to the book in Jack's hand.

Jack flipped pages until he came upon the list.

"There are hundreds of addresses there," Vala felt the need to warn.

Jack paid her comment no heed, scanning the addresses as if knowing exactly what to look for.

Daniel narrowed his eyes in thoughtful concentration. "You know where they all go, don't you?"

"They were the gate builders, Daniel. Let's just say they liked to catalog things. Hac!"

"Hac? What's hac?"

Jack frustratingly pointed to the page in the book. "Hac! Vado hac!"

"Vado? Vado means go. Go here. We have to go here?", Daniel said pointing to the address Jack was.

"Etiam."

Jack growled, knowing the transition was happening too fast. He was already having a hard time coming up with English words which was bizarre because he wasn't having a problem understanding it ...so far.

* * *

"Receiving MALP telemetry, sir."

Vala shifted uncomfortably at the video image. That was definitely the planet that Adria had taken Daniel from.

"Yep." Daniel agreed. "That's the one."

"We need to go there."

"Why?"

"I don't know yet. I just know I need to go there."

"Well, okay. What's there? Um, their was the Repository but you don't really need that. Uhh, then there was the molecular construction device that we built the Sangraal with." Daniel raised his eyebrows. "You need to build something."

Jack shrugged, eyes wide. "Guess we'll find out."

General Landry entered the conversation. "I can't just let you go through the gate, Jack. In case you don't remember, it didn't go so well the last time."

"We'll go with him." Daniel butted in. "And we'll bring Teal'c," he added, when Landry didn't seem convinced.

"And Mitchell," Vala pitched in. "It'll be like an SG-1 party!"

"Sam stays."

Daniel shook his head. "She can't, Jack. We'll need her to override the obelisk so that we can dial out."

"What?"

"The DHD on the planet doesn't work alone. She had to work with Ba'al to be able to figure out how the obelisk worked in the first place."

"Sam needs all the time we've got to try and figure out how to get this stuff out of my fron. I'm sure I'll be able to instar it out."

On Vala's askance look, Daniel said, "Head. And figure. Out of his head and figure it out."

"Oh."

Jack frowned.

"Jack, would you really like to risk it, that you'll just know? Besides, Sam could be working on the obelisk while you're building ...whatever."

"Better yet," Landry intervened, "none of you go, unless Colonel Carter does."

Jack was now reduced to scowling. "Fine. But we leave as soon as Teal'c gets here."


	4. Chapter 4

_Author's Reply To Reviews:_

_not a zatarc - Field trip, indeed! And glad to hear you like Nate. If you could only see how cute he was in my head. lol_

_pain in the mikta - Can I just say that I love your screen name?_

_J. Stone - Aww, shucks._

_PatriciaS- I was surprised when I got not one but two comments about where Nate was gonna be. Honestly, I didn't think much about it. I just assumed that during the day he would be in daycare. And well, as for the night, it does get addressed briefly in a later chapter so I won't go into it further. But thank you so much for noticing even that little detail and for enjoying the story. I hope you continue to do so._

_Liery - Thank you! Hopefully there will be some surprises along the way. ;)_

_AT Fan - For your question about Nate, see my comment to PatriciaS. I hope you continue to enjoy the story._

* * *

Teal'c stepped through the gate into the familiar confines of the SGC. Jack awaited him at the bottom of the ramp.

"O'Neill," he greeted, grasping his brother's arm. "This is most distressing."

"Loquor me about it."

Teal'c showed no outward emotion to his friend's slip and O'Neill himself seemed to be unaware of it. Teal'c had been informed O'Neill's possession of the Ancient knowledge was no more than a day. If this was indeed the case, his brain was being affectedly much more rapidly than on previous occasion.

"You ready to head out again?"

"Indeed."

* * *

The snap of the gate sounded behind the group as they descended the steps of the gate address Jack had provided.

"Spooky," Jack observed aloud. Sam smiled at his comment, as she had thought the same thing the first time she had been here. For most of the group, this spot brought back bad memories. Vala especially lingered on the spot that Daniel held off Adria.

Cameron asked, "Sam, how long do you think it will take you to do whatever you have to do to the obelisk?"

"Now that I know what I'm doing, five ...ten minutes, if anything. It could still be the way we left it and not need any corrections at all."

"So this is where you sucker punched Ba'al, huh?" Jack grinned widely. "Man, I wish I could have seen that."

Teal'c too smiled. "It was quite impressive, O'Neill."

Sam felt her lips twitch in recollection of that event. Jack had grinned inanely for days after he'd found out and showed unceasing appreciation in several pleasurable ways.

Daniel pushed his glasses up his nose. "Not to ruin the moment or anything, but shouldn't we go inside and see what we're here for?"

Jack snapped back to military mode. "Right."

Leading the way, Jack marched the group into Merlin's chambers. On seeing the molecular device, Jack stopped, staring at it for a long time.

Tick. Tick. Tick. The sound grew louder in his mind. Subconsciously, Jack's fingers tapped against his P90 in the same rhythmic pace. Plans and information swarmed his thoughts, numbers and ideas Jack didn't understand and yet there seemed to be an order to it. A picture formed in his mind, a large metal spherical object. That was what he needed.

Swiftly removing his weapon and hat, Jack made his way to the repository. Not hesitating for a moment, he stepped up to the device, activating it. Sam physically recoiled at the sight of her husband at the machine. She watched him with a kind of fascinated horror. Like driving by a car wreck, not wanting to see but unable to look away. Green light colored his face. Sam wasn't sure whether it was her paranoia or not, but his features seemed strained already. The lines in his face deepened, his eyes ragged.

Basic elements appeared above the molecular construction device and the others could only watch as different materials joined together to form ...whatever it was Jack was trying to make. It seemed like an eternity passed before Jack stopped, a partially formed metal device on the table. Jack stumbled back, dropping himself on a step as Sam rushed to his side.

"Jack?"

"I'm fine." He breathed heavily. "I just had to take a break is all."

Jack looked up at Daniel. "And you used this thing before?"

Daniel nodded. "Intense, isn't it?"

Jack huffed. "You're telling me!"

"You figured out what you're doing yet?"

Rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands, Jack muttered, "No." Sighing, he continued, "It's all there, Daniel. I don't understand any of it but I know this, whatever this is, is important."

Sam got up to take a closer look at what was put together so far. A grooved metal half-sphere that Sam estimated was roughly the size of a large beach ball lay open before her. A darker metal lined the device vertically, rising from a base at the bottom of the sphere. At each end, the darkened metal had notches of some sort but Sam had no idea what they could mean. The inside of the device was mainly barren. There were two sections that looked like something should be inserted into it.

"Anything?", Cam asked, hoping that at least one person would know what was going on.

Sam shrugged. "Well," pointing to the two sections, "these look like ZPM's could be held here. Other than that, there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of anything but structure at the moment."

"ZPM's? Two?" Looking at Jack, Cam asked, "You do know that we don't even have one free ZPM, right?"

Jack glowered. "Yes, Mitchell. I am aware."

Getting back up, Jack headed toward the Repository.

Sam stepped to him. "Are you sure you're ready?"

"I'm fine, Carter," he stated without looking at her, starting up the building process again.

Sam turned a glare at Cameron, silently chastising him for causing Jack to push himself too hard. Cam hadn't done it intentionally, but still, he should have known better. Knowing it would be a while yet, Sam sat on the steps, watching the progression of Jack's work. The only way she would get through this is if she turned her scientist cap on. Sam pulled out her laptop and went to working her way through part of the Asgard database. Her team was still hard at work on it back home, but they needed all the help they could get.

Two more times, Jack stopped to take breaks after hours of work. It was late by this time and people were sleeping throughout the room. Sam and Daniel had both tried to get Jack to stop and rest earlier but he just kept saying 'laxus' which Daniel loosely translated as 'later'.

_"Damn it, Jack. I'll tie you down!"_

_Jack gave him a fierce if not amused glare. He told Daniel, in Ancient, that there wasn't enough time._

_The resignation in Jack's voice, though worrying, made Daniel back off. Instead, he turned his attention to Sam._

_"You need rest too, ya know."_

_"I'm fine."_

_"Which means you're dead on your feet. C'mon," Cam added to the argument. He reached one hand out to take her laptop and the glare she leveled him with stopped Cam in his tracks._

_"Sam," Daniel tried logically, "you were just telling Jack he needed to rest."_

_Not even looking up from her computer anymore, Sam said rather sarcastically, "I don't have a people's legacy in my head, Daniel. Now I will say this one more time. I'm fine. Go. Sleep." _

Vala woke Teal'c for his watch, barely noticing as Muscles walked to the entrance of the cavern. In the darkened space, she didn't see Mitchell sprawled on the floor in front of her and tripped ungracefully over his body. He 'oomphed' loudly, glaring at her in the dark when he woke up enough to figure out what happened. Regaining her balance, Vala quietly whispered 'sorry' and heard him angrily pounding his jacket back into a pillow. Her Daniel lay asleep close to Sam's feet. Samantha still worked away at her laptop, as she had when Vala went to sleep and when Vala had woken for her watch. Jack, too was still awake, green light flooding his features. Her memories of Daniel were strong and Vala lay beside him, resting her head on his shoulder. She looked at the lighted molecules above her head, spinning round, for just a moment before she fell asleep.

The room darkened and Sam looked up from her computer. Jack had stopped to rest again, but instead of coming to sit by her he crumpled to the floor. Almost throwing her laptop to the side, Sam leapt up and over to him. He was still conscious and leaning against the wall underneath the repository. Putting her hands all over him, she checked for fever or injury.

Jack weakly pushed her hands back, muttering something in Ancient.

"You are _not_ fine," she countered, understanding his meaning without having to know the language.

He smirked tiredly at her. Grabbing the back of her neck with his hand, he pulled her down beside him, holding her and breathing her in.

"Afto telago."

Sam lifted herself from his chest. "Jack, I don't speak Ancient."

She rose to wake Daniel, but he pulled her back down. Laying his head on her shoulder, Jack linked their fingers together and closed his eyes.

Tick. Tick. Tick. TICK. Jack woke with a start.

It was time.

Lifting himself off the floor, he sent a disapproving look to his wife who was studiously working on her laptop again. Walking over to Daniel, Jack tapped Daniel's side with the tip of his boot.

When Daniel blinked blearily up at him, Jack said, "Afto est fora."

The words caused Daniel to try and get up, only to frown when he was unable to move. Looking down at the mass of black hair on his shoulder unhappily, Daniel shook her awake with his free hand.

"Vala, get up."

"I didn't take it, I promise," she declared in her sleep.

"Vala!"

Vala opened her eyes, smiling sleepily up at Daniel. "Good morning, darling."

Daniel's face softened briefly before returning to glowering at her. Nudging her off his shoulder, he stood abruptly, muttering about his arm being asleep.

"Well, _someone_ woke up on the wrong side of the floor this morning."

Daniel stood next to Jack, looking at the sphere on the table. In all actuality, it was really two half-spheres that looked identical to the other, joined with an opening around it's middle. Through the opening, Daniel could see more metal in the interior.

"Is it done?"

Jack nodded. "Etiam. Nos prepei vado."

"Go where?"

"Julin."

"Julin. What's Julin?"

Jack ignored the question, telling Daniel again that it was time. Now.

Jack walked out of the cavern, stepping over Mitchell and waking him in the process.

Shuffling past Teal'c, Jack pointed back inside the cavern and said, "Succurro lemma ektelo."

Teal'c had no knowledge of what his friend's words meant, but turned to go back in the cavern, surmising that was his intention.

Sam followed Jack out and came to his side, watching him shuffle things around in the obelisk.

"What are you doing?", she asked curiously.

He didn't answer, not that she expected him to, instead pushing the crystal shelf back into the obelisk. Daniel and Vala came out of the cavern with Teal'c and Mitchell carrying the sphere behind them.

After setting it down, Cam asked Sam, "What do you think it is?"

Sam shrugged and answered honestly, "I have no idea."

"This device is familiar to me."

Everyone turned to Teal'c, silently waiting for him to elaborate.

"It appears strikingly similar to the weapon on Dakara, only much smaller."

Jack nodded, as he began dialing out. "Sator Aevum."

Cameron turned to their resident translator. "Jackson?"

"Sator Aevum. It means 'create life', or um, in this case maybe 'creator of life'." Looking at Jack, Daniel questioned, "Is that what the Ancients called the Dakara weapon?"

Jack nodded again as the gate finished dialing. Pointing to the wormhole, Jack said, "Atlantis."

Everyone turned to the wormhole as if they actually expected to be able to see Atlantis. Sam donned her this-is-so-not-scientifically-possible face and looked at the DHD. It was Atlantis' address.

"Jack, how did you do this? With no ZPM, or even a control crystal for that matter, to dial between galaxies..."

Jack pointed to the obelisk and could see Carter's eyes widen. She practically salivated, wanting to take a look at its insides now. Jack redirected her attention, jiggling her radio and pointing to the wormhole.

Catching his meaning, Sam clicked it on, announcing, "Atlantis, this is Colonel Carter. Do you read?"

A very surprised sounding Colonel Sheppard responded, "Read you loud and clear, Colonel. What can we do for ya?"

"Lowering the shield would be nice," she said with a smile. "We might just have a solution to your little problem."

After a short pause in which Sam could imagine the shock on the Atlantis crews faces, John said, "Sounds like music to my ears. Come on through."

SG-1 was greeted by John and the rest of SGA-1 coming down the stairs. Woolsey was no where in sight which SG-1 couldn't say they had a problem with.

John eyed the Sator Aevum. "So that's your solution?"

Sam nodded. "We think."

Ronon growled, "You think?"

Vala helpfully told them, "General Jack built it. Supposedly, it creates life though how that's going to stop your Vampire problem I'm not really sure." Looking thoughtful, she continued rambling, "Unless of course we made some even scarier Wraith-sicking monsters. Daniel, what _are_ we going to use this lovely little device for?"

"The weapon on Dakara was capable of not only creating life, but destroying it." Getting distracted by Jack wandering up the stairs, Daniel asked, "Jack, where are you going?"

When Jack didn't answer, Daniel slumped, taking off after him, grumbling, "I don't know why I bother asking. It's not like he ever answers me."

The rest of SG-1 followed and after some odd looks between SGA-1, they too followed to see what the General was doing. Jack tapped his fingers rhythmically on the table in front of the control room's DHD. When Daniel reached his side, Jack said, "MALP."

Daniel looked perplexed. "Malp? Uh, I don't know that one."

He pulled a book out of his pack and started leafing through it. Jack looked up and rolled his eyes. Taking the book away from Daniel, he again said, "MALP," using his hands to indicate something going through what Daniel assumed was supposed to be the gate.

"Oh!" Daniel looking slightly embarrassed turned to the group saying, "Jack wants a MALP ready."

By the time the MALP was in the gate room and they geared up, the Atlantis team had been informed of Jack's condition. Jack dialed another eight symbol address.

"He's dialing another galaxy," Rodney said in realization.

Cam grinned. "Three galaxies in one day. This has to be some kind of record."

The MALP was sent through and Rodney had a weird sense of deja vu as he saw the same darkened screen with lighted stairs that he had seen on his first glimpse of Atlantis through the MALP at the SGC.

"It's another city!" he shouted excitedly. "Breathable atmosphere, no readable toxins."

"We're good to go?" John asked.

"Are you kidding? Do you know what this means? We could..."

John sighed, "Rodney!"

"Yes, yes, we're good to go."

"Alright," John patronized. "Let's go then."

When Sam went to go to the gate room with the others, Jack stopped her.

"Teneo."

"What? Daniel, what's he saying?"

"Um, teneo means he wants you to stay."

Sam looked fiercely back at Jack, brokering no argument. "I'm going, Jack."

Tapping the side of his head, Jack simply told her, "Vos solos unam qae kathos emena."

Daniel translated quietly, "You are the only one who can fix me."

Sam lifted her heads skyward, letting out a huff. "Yeah, I got that one."

"Teneo."

"Okay. I'll go back to Earth, figure it out. But I'm still holding you to your promise, Jack O'Neill."

He grinned affectionately at her and slowly turned to go. Once in the gate room with the others, Jack told John's team to stay behind through hand signals.

"Woah woah woah," McKay shouted. "There's no way you're going without us!"

Daniel translated Jack's next words as, "Protect the Sator Aevum."

"It's not going to get up and walk off on it's own. And it definitely doesn't need four bodyguards. We're going."

Daniel smirked at Jack's muttering under his breath that there was no point of him being a General as it didn't do him any good. He didn't bother to translate.

Jack silently implored Teal'c and with a slight bow of his head, Teal'c took position in front of the Sator Aevum.

Finally, the two teams stepped through the gate together.

Daniel looked at the darkened surroundings on the other side. It really was a carbon copy of Atlantis, making Daniel wonder if the Ancients had some kind of factory line where they built these things.

"I wonder what galaxy we're in," Cameron thought aloud.

"Genae Avie."

"What's that?" Cam asked to Jack's retreating back. He looked to Daniel, who shrugged.

"It doesn't mean anything as far as I'm aware. Maybe they named it after a person."

"It's very pretty," Vala commented, saying the name again.

"I get dibs on naming the city," John declared.

"It's already got a name."

"What?"

"Jack says it's name is Julin."

"Julin?" Rodney huffed. "That's a crap name."

"Hey, it's better than Hippopotamus."

"Hippaforalkus."

"Whatever."

"Where did Jack go?" Daniel questioned.

"Ya know, I'm beginning to think we should get a leash for that man." Vala grinned saucily. "With a spiked collar."

"The lights have been activated in this direction," Teyla pointed with her P90 to the right.

"Well boys and girls, let's follow the yellow brick road."

They found Jack at the power base for three ZPM's. Rodney started salivating on the spot, in Ancient techy heaven. Jack raised one eyebrow at the scientist, stowing away two of the power sources and leaving the last where it was.

With Jack waving them back out of the room, Rodney complained, "That's it? We're leaving? We can't just leave now!"

"Rodney!" John called in his familiar tone. "You can come back and explore once you've helped save Atlantis!"

Rodney pouted and John turned away to keep walking. Stopping himself, he faced Rodney again, and added with a mock serious expression, "But only if you're a good boy."

"Oh ha ha."

* * *

Author's Note: Pronunciations

Sator Aevum - (say-tor A-vum)

Genae Avie - the G is pronounced with a French jza sound. (jzeh-nay ah-vee)

Julin - same french jza. (Jzu-lyn)


	5. Chapter 5

_Author's Reply to Reviews:_

_HAZMOT - blushes Thank you. That's really sweet._

_not a zatarc - Oh you have no idea. Poor Jack. lol. And thank you._

_Harm Marie - I thought so. And it so sounded like something Cam would notice and point out to me._

_pain in the mikta - Thank you! It gets pretty action orientated like non stop for the next little bit ...or at least I hope it does. lol. _

_Liery - Thank you!_

_SamCarter93, __J.Stone_ - Ya know the really interesting thing about that? The first time I ever saw Vala on SG-1, I hated her. It took me a few episodes but she really grew on me and now I just love her character to pieces. Weird how that happens. Maybe that's just her character's effect cuz it took a while for SG-1 to really like her, too.

_Firewolfe - I love John/Rodney Jack/Daniel banter. For some reason the John/Rodney banter has been much easier for me to implement that Jack/Daniel usually is which I completely don't get but oh well._

_Leilina - Can I just say I love your name too? So pretty. But anyway, thank you for the nice review! Much appreciated._

_PatriciaS - I love the way you write your reviews. They make me feel like I've taken my story to a book critic or something only the book critic loves me so it's all good things. lol._

_PapayaK - Thank you very much!_

_AT Fan - Well, I can't very well just TELL you can I? That would completely ruin the story for you._

* * *

Both teams stepped into the Atlantis gate room to be faced with an irate Richard Woolsey.

"Colonel Sheppard," he raved, "I am the leader of this expedition and as such, it is your _duty _to inform me before you go gallivanting across the universe!"

"Sorry, sir," John apologized, not very sincerely. "You were unavailable and we don't exactly have a lot of time to spare right now."

"And _he_," Woolsey pointed at Teal'c with disdain, "refuses to tell me anything!"

Daniel stepped forward, assuming his negotiator / peacekeeper stance. "Mr. Woolsey, Jack has found a way to defend the city against the coming hives. The device he built is called the Sator Aevum. It's a smaller replica of the Dakara weapon which..."

"I know what the Dakara weapon is, Dr. Jackson. And if that truly is what you say it is, it is far more dangerous than helpful. Why do you think we tried to destroy it in the first place? Can you imagine how horrible it would be if the Wraith or Michael got a hold of this? I can! We should destroy it immediately!"

"No!", Jack growled.

"And bringing General O'Neill, who is currently compromised and has his brain being overrun by an alien device! I had no idea that General Landry ran such a lax command..."

Jack yelled, "ENOUGH!" in Ancient. Storming right in Woolsey's face, he used every inch of his height to tell the man off. Daniel didn't translate but listened as Jack fumed.

"Listen here, you little..." Daniel roughly translated 'nit', "I appointed you to your position! I may not be able to speak the damn language right now and may be 'overrun' by an alien device, but I still have the authority to remove you from your high horse and if you try to prevent me saving these people, Woolsey, so help me, your _position_ will be the last of your worries!"

When finished, Jack turned to Daniel with fury still in his eyes.

Daniel cleared his throat. "Um, what Jack basically said was, uh, that he has command and authority over you, Ancient repository or not. In fact," Daniel mused, "with the repository he's a million times smarter than anyone in this room." A huff from Rodney could be heard behind him. "The point of the matter is, Mr. Woolsey, Jack _has_ a plan. What do you have?"

Not taking his angry gaze from Jack, Woolsey said, "I want this city ready to self-destruct if the _General's _plan doesn't work." His expression turning from anger to curious confusion, Richard asked, "What exactly is the General's plan?"

Daniel looked to Jack, hoping that he would explain. When Jack saw Daniel looking at him expectantly, his eyes darted around the room quickly in avoidance and then landing on his pack, he went to start unloading the ZPM's.

Daniel gazed at Jack in thought and then turned to Woolsey. "As of right now, only Jack knows the answer to that."

Woolsey directed his attention to Rodney. "I'm willing to see where the General is going with this, but I want a back up plan. Start thinking, Dr. McKay."

Daniel didn't pay attention to the rest of the conversation, instead crouching down beside Jack while everyone else's attention was diverted.

In Ancient, Daniel said more than asked, "You can't understand us completely anymore, can you?"

Jack looked up briefly, holding the first ZPM. The look in his eyes was enough of an answer. Jack had already taken the top half of the sphere off and now inserted the first ZPM. Once in, it lit up. Jack repeated the process with the second ZPM.

"Indaego na melet Wraith texos."

Daniel frowned. "Texos? Um, construct or construction." He looked confused. "You need to study Wraith construction? Like their ships?"

Jack shook his head. "Vius texos."

"I don't understand."

Rodney could see their conversation at a distance and that they were having obvious communication issues.

Inserting himself in the conversation, he asked, "What's wrong?"

"I can't understand what Jack is trying to say. He keeps saying he needs to study Wraith life construction."

McKay tapped his fingers on his ever present computer tablet. Snapping his fingers repeatedly, Rodney declared, "I know what he's going to do."

When he didn't elaborate, John tried, "Mind sharing with the rest of the class?"

"He's going, I mean, this is amazing. He's going to destroy the Wraith."

"We'd kind of figured that was the end all of the plan, Rodney."

"No, you don't understand. He's going to physically break down the Wraith at a molecular level."

Realization dawned on Daniel's face. "Like Sam did with the Replicaters." Turning to Jack, he said, "Wraith DNA. That's what you were trying to tell me."

Jack's eyebrows rose and he shrugged, not fully understanding what Daniel said.

"So, wait," John started. "I don't understand. This little thing is going to be able to blow the Wraith up from the inside out? How?"

"It sends an energy wave that targets Wraith DNA, separating the major components, destroying them." Rodney looked beside himself with joy, as if he had come up with the idea himself.

"Cool," Ronon commented.

"What of humans who carry a small portion of Wraith DNA?", Teyla questioned.

Rodney's face fell. "You're right. We can't do this. It would kill Teyla and Torren."

Daniel told Jack of this new obstacle in their path. Jack frowned heavily, deep in thought. There were too many distractions. He was running out of time.

Rodney snapped his fingers rapidly again. "All we have to do is send them to another planet. The wave will only surround the space of this planet."

Jack shook his head in the negative when Daniel explained Rodney's idea.

"Oloi porta."

Daniel let that sink in for a second. "All the gates. You're gonna do what Ba'al did. You're gonna destroy them all at once."

Jack shrugged, deflecting the grandeur and heroicness of his plan.

"Wait. What?!" John shifted on his feet. "Did you just say that he's going to destroy _all_ the Wraith at once?"

Daniel nodded, still staring at Jack. "When Sam and Jacob used the Dakara weapon to destroy the Replicaters they had to team up with Ba'al because he knew a way to get all of the gates in the galaxy to dial out at once. It won't destroy any Wraith traveling in hyperspace or too far away from a planet's surface, but if this works," turning to John, Daniel finished, "it will significantly reduce their numbers."

John's eyes widened as he tried to take that in. This could completely change the tide of the war. But...

"What about Teyla?"

"Some of my people as well have Wraith DNA. They would be killed."

Before Daniel could attempt to translate, Jack stood with a growl and waved for Teyla to follow him. Mitchell and Teal'c stayed with the Sator Aevum, but the rest of the ever increasing group followed Jack and Teyla to the operations center.

Going up to a large plasma touch screen monitor, Jack pulled up a star map and motioned for Teyla to point out which planet her people were on. Realizing his intention, Teyla selected the planet.

Jack stared at the screen, committing the gate address to memory and then nodded firmly at Teyla.

"You'll have to go there," Daniel told her.

"Yes," she nodded. "I know. Torren and I will leave immediately."

* * *

"Hey."

Teyla looked up from stowing clothes in a rucksack for her and Torren.

"Hello, John."

He stepped into the room, stopping about half way to her.

"You okay?"

Surprised, Teyla replied, "I am fine."

He stared at her and his knowing eyes caused her to look away, returning to stuffing clothes in her bag.

"I know you feel guilty about it, Teyla, but it's not your fault."

Her body stilled. Not looking away from her bed, she said, "They will die because of me."

"No. They will die because they were captured by Michael and he changed them."

"I promised myself I would get my people back."

"And you did. The Athosians have been living on Athosia for years now." Before she could protest, he continued, "I know not all of your people are there. But Teyla, we've been trying. The truth is, even if we did get them back, we don't have a way to make them human again. They'd still be hybrids. General O'Neill's plan is good. But, for the record, I am sorry."

Teyla sighed heavily. Without anger, she told him, "I am not so naive as to not know that this is the correct course of action. I cannot even imagine, after all this time, that the Wraith could be destroyed in one swift blow. The people of this galaxy will finally be free to grow and live without having to constantly look over their shoulders.

"If we knew of any way to help my people, I would fight and demand we look for another way before we resorted to this. I know there is no other way. And who am I that I may stand and declare the captured of my people to be worth more than the countless lives of the rest of this galaxy?" She sighed again, eyes shimmering in the light. "I know this is right."

John nodded, hands in his pockets. After a pause, he looked around her quarters. "You and Torren ready to go?"

Teyla gave him a small smile. "Yes. He is with Jennifer."

She hoisted the light bag she had their things in on her shoulder and John turned to walk out the door with her. Putting her hand on his arm to stop him, Teyla said simply, "Thank you."

He smiled. "No problem."

* * *

"I've got it."

Bill Lee jumped off his stool and walked around to Sam's computer. "Really? Let me see."

"This is amazing. Their study of the brain is so much more advanced than any research we have on Earth. I mean, the fact alone that they can transfer a person's whole consciousness into another body is amazing, but this... they have found a way to detect _specifically_ the Ancient data in his brain. Something about it is distinctly different than his own memories. They simply tag only that signature and extract it from his brain. Incredible!"

"So you know what you need to do?"

"Yes. It's all right here. Now all we have to do is get him here. I'm going to go to Atlantis and see what's going on. Bill, ...thank you so much for helping me with this."

Touched, Dr. Lee said, "You're welcome, Colonel."

By the time Sam got to Atlantis it was well into the second evening since SG-1 had all left for Merlin's cavern. That meant that it had been thirty six hours since she had slept now. And looking over Jack's ragged face, she surmised he hadn't slept since that one hour in the cave.

Daniel snuck up quietly behind her as they watched Jack scanning the computer's in Dr. Keller's infirmary from the doorway.

"He can't understand us anymore," Daniel whispered over her shoulder.

Sam tensed and nodded. "Then we don't have much time."

"McKay thinks the hives will reach Atlantis sometime tomorrow morning."

Watching the light illuminate her husband's face, she asked, "Has he eaten?"

Slightly chastising, Daniel countered, "Have you?"

Sam glared at him over her shoulder and he relented. "I've been bringing him food. He's been in here almost all day. I won't even begin to comprehend what it is exactly he's doing but he's pulled up everything they have on the Wraith."

Jack shut down the computer and scrubbed his hands over his face. Ignoring the stiff muscles in his body as he rose from his chair, Jack made his way over to Daniel and Sam.

He asked Daniel how long they had before the Wraith came and Daniel told him what he had told Sam.

Jack nodded. "Dormata."

Daniel smiled tiredly. "Yeah, sleep sounds good to me too. Come on."

Sam walked down the hall beside Jack, a worried hurt feeling in her chest and gut. He hadn't so much as given her a passing glance since she'd gotten here. What if he simply didn't know who she was? And if that was the case, was it too late to even use the Asgard technology?

Daniel led them to some empty quarters and Sam was unsure whether she should go with Jack in the room. No matter how much she desperately wanted to be with her husband, if he didn't know who she was...

As Daniel opened the door, Jack lightly took her hand in his, entwining their fingers and easing any doubts Sam had. Once alone inside and the door closed, Jack rested his forehead against hers, eyes closed, simply breathing in her presence. This was just the way he had held her outside Nathan's room just two nights ago.

Jack pulled her closer, wrapping his arms fully around her and burying his face against the side of her neck. He kissed her bare flesh tenderly and sighed, slumping a little against her. Sam could understand. She was completely exhausted herself.

Taking his hand in hers, Sam led him to bed where the only thing they bothered to take off was their boots before they both curled together and promptly passed out.

* * *

Author's Notes: I honestly think that in Season Five we'll see more of the good side of Woolsey instead of his antagonistic nature that makes you want to strangle him but I needed an antagonist and he fit the bill so I apologize if he comes off a little one dimensional.


	6. Chapter 6

_Author's Reply to Reviews:_

_Harm Marie - Thanks. I still wish I could have given him a little more but I just didn't have an opportunity available to give him that._

_HAZMOT - Thanks so much. It's cool to see which parts were your favorites._

_Nessie1701 - Thank you. :)_

_not a zatarc - :D_

_Aveo amacus - Thanks, Aveo!_

_Liery - Thank you so much for the correction. I remember looking it up on gateworld when I wrote it but I was probably really tired at the time and screwed up the letters. Anyway, thanks so much. You're right. I'm kind of anal about stuff like that so it's much appreciated!_

_Devilish Me - You shall see, you shall see..._

_pain in the mikta - Well, I think it would be cool to actually see this on screen. Of course the writers would have to do alot of adding of scientific jargon. McKay so doesn't say nearly as much in my story as he does on the show. But alas, my brain is not near so large as his._

_lkhoward88 - I really tried to make this story have alot of twists and turns to where you can gasp and go, 'she didn't! oh my god! she did!'. lol. So I'm glad you're enjoying that aspect of the story._

* * *

Sam woke to the feel of Jack's mouth exploring the length of her neck and collarbone.

In the dark and stillness of the morning, they made love, pouring all they felt into each kiss and caress. Teasing each other in a way only familiar lovers could.

Both satiated and slick with sweat, they panted heavily, trying to bring their breathing and heart rates back down to a normal level. Jack resting his head on her chest. Sam stroked his damp hair with her fingers until he lulled back to sleep on her. Looking over at the clock on the nightstand, she saw that it was just a little after four in the morning. Instead of joining him in sleep, Sam simply enjoyed holding Jack in her arms and prayed that it wouldn't be the last time she did so.

By six o'clock, Jack was working on the DHD in the operations center. McKay scrunched down behind him, doing his best to see every little thing Jack was doing. Jack sighed for the sixth time in as many minutes and finally turned around to glare at McKay.

Rodney looked at him, confused. "What?"

Jack pointed for him to go away. Far far away.

Rodney pouted. "Oh, come on! You can't just expect me to leave! The things I could do with this..."

Jack closed his fingertips and thumb together in a shushing motion. He looked up at Teal'c, who had been with Jack since they met in the mess hall, with a silent message. His large Jaffa friend took an imposing step forward in McKay's direction. Rodney stepped back hastily. "Okay. Okay. Fine! I'll go."

Rodney muttered angrily as he left, leaving Jack free to work on the alterations to the dialing program in peace.

At seven, Jack had the Sator Aevum brought into the chair room and connected it's power to that of the chair's. Sitting on the floor, he rotated the top portion of the sphere. It clicked with each turn just like the turning of a safe lock. Clockwise and counter, he repeatedly moved over the notches in the metal. Different people gradually filtered into the room. Teal'c had been with Jack the whole time, but then Daniel came, a cup of coffee in hand. Vala stayed for a while, but everyone was too quiet for her tastes and she needed a distraction from her restless nerves. She hated the waiting. Vala would much rather the Wraith get to Atlantis now than to have this eerie dread hanging over everyone.

John and Ronon trailed in together. John felt a responsibility to be there. Atlantis was his home and for all intents and purposes, that was _his _control chair. Should anything go wrong, this was where he would most be needed. Ronon didn't particularly like this plan. If it worked, that would be great, but Ronon wasn't one to sit around helpless and that's exactly what he felt like in all of this. Helpless. This plan depended on one man. And one man alone. General O'Neill. A man he didn't know very well. John respected him and that held a lot of weight in Ronon's book. Even more than that, John actually listened to O'Neill. Which was one thing John wasn't particularly good about doing to anyone. Teal'c, too, seemed to have unwavering faith in the General. And while that wouldn't have meant squat when Ronon first met him, the incident at Midway gave him a begrudging respect for the Jaffa. This General had also won the love of Colonel Carter. A woman like her wouldn't fall for just anyone.

Radek rushed into the room. "They're here!"

Jack jerked his head up sharply at the Czech. Turning the sphere half three more times, it clicked loudly into place, humming. Jack sat in the control chair and pulled up a map of the sensor readings above their heads. Twenty red blips appeared above the planet. The first ten moved forward and opened weapon's fire.

At operations, Rodney yelled off shield statistics while Sam waited for her signal to dial the gates.

Cam rocked on his feet. "What's taking so long?" Clicking his radio, he asked, "Teal'c? What's the hold up?"

Back in the chair room, the four men watched as Jack rapidly pulled different molecule combinations together overheard. All motion stopped. Jack had formed a perfect visual sample of Wraith DNA with his mind. Changing the screen back to the sensor readings, they could now see that fifteen of the hives had pulled in, though not all were firing.

"Jaack?" Daniel drawled.

"Aft epica mi mesa teinomai."

"What?" Ronon asked for all of them.

"Those hives," Daniel said, pointing to the last five. "They aren't in range. He can't use the weapon yet because they aren't close enough to the planet."

"Well, the shields are gonna drain all our power fast at this rate. We don't have time to wait. What about the jumpers? We can use them to draw out the hives."

"Sounds like a suicide mission to me. Couldn't they just shoot you?"

John smirked. "They'd have to be able to hit me to do that."

Rodney squawked over John's com. "What is taking so long?!"

"Slight delay in plans, Rodney." Switching his com, John ordered, "Lorne?"

"Yes, sir."

"Get me every pilot with the Ancient gene at the Jumper Bay in five minutes."

"We'll be there."

Eying Daniel again, John questioned, "If we can get three of them in range, can he take out the other two with the drones?"

Daniel asked.

"Etiam. Vado."

"Yes. Go."

John and Ronon took off for the Jumper Bay, explaining to the pilots what they were doing over the com on the way. By the time they got there, the others were ready to go.

"Alright boys and girls. Let's go bait us some Wraith," John called once in the driver's seat of his Puddle Jumper.

Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c watched the action from the chair room. Ten puddle jumpers surrounded one of the hives, generally making a nuisance of themselves and surprisingly not getting shot. Not that the Wraith weren't trying. Then the darts were released. The jumpers had the advantage of being able to cloak but unfortunately that didn't help much in trying to bait something. Two of the hives moved into range but the others wouldn't budge.

John uncloaked his jumper to try and lure another Hive closer but quickly had to retract that plan as he was mercilessly pelted by dart fire. He cursed under his breath. Out his window, he could see Lt. McGregor's jumper being tailed by a dart.

"Gregs! Turn your cloak on now!"

"No can do, sir. Lost cloaking abilities."

"Then get your ass back to the city!"

One of the hives targeted McGregor's jumper and it blew up before John's eyes. Sheppard cursed loudly, pounding his fist against the front of the jumper.

Jack saw the jumpers' blip disappear from the screen and clenched his jaw.

Meanwhile, at the operations center, Vala looked out the shield toward the ocean. "Umm, is it supposed to be doing that?"

Cam walked beside her. "What?"

"Oh, I don't know. Boiling?"

The city vibrated under their feet.

"Teal'c!" Mitchell shouted. "What the hell is going on?"

"I am unsure, Colonel Mitchell," was the absurdly calm reply.

"Um, you might want to come look at this," Vala directed.

The vibrations stopped as Rodney and Cam both made their way back to the window.

"Oh my god!", Rodney exclaimed. "He's flying the city!"

Daniel watched as the city's blip started moving towards all the other blips overhead. "Jaack?? What are you doing?"

"Sermonus thro porta."

Daniel clicked his radio. "Sam, Jack said it's time."

Still staring out the window of the rising city, Sam said, "Uh, okay. I'll let you know as soon as we're ready."

Sam started the dialing program, setting off each of the gates in the Pegasus Galaxy minus Athosia.

Once completed, Sam clicked her radio. "Daniel, we're all set."

John stared in shock out his window at the city coming in to space. Guess the General decided to take matters into his own hands.

In the chair room, the overhead view of the battle disappeared. Jack closed his eyes, fully focusing with his mind. The hum from the Sator Aevum increased and a blue energy wave expounded out of it, growing exponentially.

John watched on with a sense of panic at the first sight of the wave coming toward him. It passed through his jumper so fast that he didn't even realize it until after it had already gone through. The wave expanded as far as he could see and then ...nothing. Literally. The hives were no longer firing. The blue wave dissipated and space was still.

"Colonel Sheppard?"

"Go ahead, Lorne."

"Is that it?"

John nodded to himself with a shocked expression. "Yeah. I guess so."

"Kind of anti-climactic."

John smirked. "I think I can live with that."

Lorne laughed over his com. "Me too, sir."

"Let's go check out these hives before we start celebrating. Just to be sure."

"I'm with you on that, sir."

All the residents of Atlantis waited anxiously for word from the jumpers that had been sent to scout the quiet hives. Woolsey activated the city-wide com so everyone would hear the news at once. Jack apparently wasn't too concerned because he brought the city back planet-side, much gentler than Sheppard did, Sam noted.

"Atlantis, this is Colonel Sheppard." Everyone held their breath. "Mission was a complete success!"

The whoops and hollers from Atlantis members could probably be heard by the jumper pilots without the assistance of com's. They had finally won!

"Jack!" Daniel shouted. "You did it! The Wraith are gone!"

Jack told Daniel to tell Sam to start the dialing program again.

"What? Why?"

Jack pulled up a picture overhead with what he planned to do and Daniel understood.

"Sam?"

"Yeah?" she shouted in her com over the noise of the people in the backround. Ronon was currently lifting and twirling a petrified looking Rodney in the air.

"Jack wants you to run the dialing program one more time."

"Daniel?"

"Trust him, Sam."

Sam bit her lip, starting the dialing program again.

Woolsey and a few others appeared at her side. "Colonel Carter, what's going on?"

"General O'Neill says he's not done yet. Apparently, there's one more thing that needs to be taken care of."

"This wasn't part of the plan, Colonel!", came from the irate expedition leader.

"Hey!" Cam defended. "He just saved this city. Hell, this whole galaxy!"

The blue energy wave from the Sator Aevum washed through them as Cam spoke.

When the gate shut off, Sam clicked her radio. "Daniel?"

A frantic sounding Daniel clicked on the line. "Sam! Get a medical team down here now!"

* * *

...  
dun dun dun CLIFFHANGER!  
...


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: I fully admit that I stole all medical jargon from Atlantis episode "Adrift".

_Author's Reply to Reviews:_

_To all that thought the cliffhanger was, and I quote 'mean' unquote - I'm sorry. But I've always to write a cliffhanger and I finally found an opportunity. And yes I know it was mean. Because when cliffhangers happen on tv or in other stories, I always yell at the screen. But then the next week, day, whatever, I'm anxiously waiting on the edge of my seat for the next part of the story. Thus, the reason cliffhangers are made. And plus it's just fun. :)_

_To all that liked the cliffhanger - Thank you. Glad you liked it. :D_

_Liery - I can't believe I have NEVER noticed that. And no, I'm not going to slap you. I truly appreciate that. I mean, out of all the stories I've read on here, and how I watch the show, I seriously can't believe I missed that about his name. But you're completely right. I must scan words way too much. But thank you. I'll make the alterations to his name. Ronon...darn, it's gonna be hard getting used to typing it that way. Ya know, cuz now I'm used to it the other way. Sigh. Oh well._

_Devilish Me - lol. That's funny. Have faith and you shall see._

_not a zatarc - Yay! I made someone gasp. Cool._

_Entropic Cascade - One, cool name. Two, all your questions shall be answered in time. _

_Cocoa Girl2 - You and I think a lot alike. This whole story is just like an excerpt from a huge story that will be practically impossible for me to EVER finish it's that big, but the whole kid thing you are talking about...it's in there. So yeah, me and you are so on the same page. But it's not addressed at all in this story...which is why I told you about it at all because I would have so just ruined a huge surprise if I brought it up in this story._

_PapayaK - You could be very right about that. I didn't reread chapter 6 to see where I even wrote that but I'm sure you're right. I do stuff like that all the time. Thanks for pointing it out and oh, if you do look it up and find out that I was wrong, please go ahead and post it in a review or something for me and I'll go back in the story and change it._

_Nessie1701 - You're funny. I like that._

_codo - Someone was having a problem seeing chapter 5 earlier as well. They went back later and it came up for them, so I don't know. If you still haven't been able to get chapter 5 to come up, let me know and I will send a copy of it to your email or something. I don't know why it's doing that. _

_HAZMOT - Ah, nice to see there's someone else out there evil like me. lol. ;) _

_PatriciaS - Thank you very much. I'm sure Jack would fly anything he could get his hands on too! lol. And I'll post a chapter a day until they are all up, so no worries._

_Harm Marie - Thank you._

_Aveo amacus - Thank you very much._

_pain in the mikta - :)_

_gater62 - why thank you!_

* * *

Daniel frantically pulled Jack out of the control chair, throwing him none too gingerly to the floor.

"Daniel Jackson, I shall carry him and meet the medical team halfway."

Daniel checked Jack's pulse one more time. "Damn it," he cursed under his breath. "There's no time, Teal'c. He's not breathing."

Daniel silently thanked the military for demanding he know how to perform CPR. Tilting Jack's head back, he pinched the man's nose and breathed two, long slow breaths in Jack's mouth.

Daniel checked again for breathing or a pulse. He could find neither.

Cursing again, Daniel put his hands in position over Jack's chest and compressed to a count of thirty. He switched to breathing two more breaths. Still nothing.

"C'mon!"

Daniel repeated the process twice more before checking for a pulse. Still nothing.

"Damn you, Jack! You are not allowed to die now!"

He compressed Jack's chest again and was positive he heard something snap, but kept going. Dr. Keller stormed in the door, pushing him out of the way while asking what happened. Daniel found he was shaking so much that he couldn't say anything and Teal'c quickly informed Jennifer what had occurred.

Sam barreled into the room as they were getting Jack on a gurney. The three of them tailing after the medical team, Sam questioned, "What happened?!"

Still taking deep breaths, Daniel panted, "After the second wave, he stopped breathing and I couldn't find a pulse. I performed CPR but I couldn't get anything."

They found themselves in the infirmary, Jennifer with paddles in hands.

"Clear!"

Jack's body jolted off the bed. No pulse.

"Charge it! ...Clear!"

The flat line rang in everyone's ears. Sam watched, completely unable to move.

"Let's start him on mannitol -- two hundred C.Cs I.V."

Jennifer pumped Jack's chest manually, the monitor in the backround unchanging.

"Time?"

"Two minutes flat line."

"Come on!," Jennifer yelled. "Put up a fight, airman!"

The tone increased to a rapid beeping.

"He's going back into V-fib." Grabbing the defibrillator paddles, Jen yelled for everyone to clear and shocked him again. A regular heartbeat sounded out of the monitors.

Sam let out a relieved sob, not even realizing that she had been silently crying the whole time. Daniel wrapped his arm around her, pulling her to his shoulder, his own eyes red and hands still shaking.

Once Jack was fully stabilized, Dr. Keller allowed them over to his bedside.

"We'll need to do a scan, but I'm pretty positive he's got at least two cracked ribs."

Daniel winced. Sam took Jack's hand in her own and as Dr. Keller was about to walk away, Sam said, "Jennifer?"

Jen stopped and looked at her former commander.

"Thank you."

Jennifer smiled softly and walked away with a nod.

After a while of sitting silently and listening to the steady beats of his heart, Sam quietly said, "Thank you, Daniel."

"I don't know how much good I did. Those cracked ribs are probably my fault."

"Without you, he wouldn't be alive to complain about them."

Daniel smiled, knowing that's exactly what Jack would be doing when he woke up.

"What was the second wave for?," she asked.

"Iratus bugs."

Sam stared at him and Daniel shrugged. "What's the point in getting rid of the Wraith if it could just happen all over again?"

Jack's grip tightened in Sam's hand.

She stood up from her chair. "Jack?"

"Oy," he groaned, reaching up to rub his free hand on his face.

Daniel and Sam looked at each other and smiled.

"Welcome to the land of the living, Jack."

Scrubbing his hand over his face, then looking at Daniel, he asked, "Vicis?"

Daniel's face fell inperceptibly. In all the drama he'd temporarily forgotten about the Repository.

"It's about 1300, Jack," he told him in Ancient.

Jack nodded and rubbed his hand across his chest, wincing.

"That's probably my fault," Daniel expounded for him. "You tried to stop breathing on us."

Jack's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He looked to Sam.

"She's okay, Jack. Was really shaken up there for a while, but she's okay now."

Jack touched his chest again and looked to Daniel. "Gratias esy."

Daniel smiled. "You're welcome. You owe me though. Having to kiss up to your sorry mouth."

Jack cringed at the thought, making Daniel chuckle. Sam watched on, feeling completely helpless and out of the loop as they spoke to each other in the Ancient tongue. Jack seemed to sense her unease, squeezing her hand.

When their eyes met, he asked, "Nate?"

It was odd hearing Jack say their son's name with a slight accent, almost as if it was foreign to him and he was saying it for the first time.

She stroked her thumb on the back of his hand. "He's fine. Cassie's watching him."

He nodded, recognizing Cassie's name. Still looking at Jack but directing her comment at Daniel, Sam stated, "We need to get him back to Earth. The longer we wait, the more we risk he'll have brain damage."

"Yeah. I'll go get Dr. Keller to see about releasing him."

* * *

"I don't understand it," Keller said, plopping down in a chair next to Jack's bed.

"Understand what?"

"I was sure he had some cracked ribs. His scans just came back clean. He doesn't even have any bruising which is impossible given what he went through."

Daniel mused, "Well, the last time Jack had the Repository knowledge, he healed Bra'tac. I don't see why he wouldn't be able to heal himself."

Jennifer barely bit back from saying aloud how wonderful it would be if they could run some tests to learn more about the process. The medical advancements they could make could be astronomical. But she was well aware that time was of the essence. General O'Neill had to get back to Earth ...and soon.

* * *

SG-1 left a jubilant Atlantis with John making them promise to come back and celebrate once Jack was better. Turning serious, he shook Sam's hand and told her he hoped things went well.

The team made it back to Earth and were beamed directly to the Odyssey where Sam would perform the procedure.

Stepping up to a console, she said, "I'll need just a minute to upload the scan that Dr. Keller took of his brain into the mainframe and then I'll be ready."

"Got some bad news, guys," announced Cameron from the doorway.

"What?"

"Apparently the Sator Aevum has been hijacked from Atlantis."

"What?! By whom?"

"Some long term residents of the city."

"A rogue group."

"Looks like."

"We specifically ordered that device to be destroyed!," Sam fumed.

Cam smiled tightly. "The ones given that job were the ones that took it."

Jack frustratingly nudged Daniel's shoulder to get him to explain what was going on. Once he did, the determination on his face had Sam saying 'no' from across the room.

Striding over to him, she said firmly, "You have to have the Ancient knowledge taken out _now. _If you don't, the brain damage will be unrepairable."

Jack stood right in front of her but his eyes moved left and right, obviously thinking of something in his own mind. Finally, he nodded briskly and got on the pod looking thing in position.

Sam moved controls on the console and activated the procedure.

Several seconds passed and Daniel asked out the side of his mouth, "Is it supposed to be taking this long?" After all, Asgard technology was pretty much instantaneous.

Sam checked the console readouts to be sure. "Everything's working the way it's supposed to. I don't know why it's going so slow. There. It's done."

She walked over to the pod 'bed' just as Jack was sitting up and rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands.

"Woah!" Jack looked at everyone surrounding him with a blank expression. "Uhhh ...what's going on?"

Sam's face split into a massive grin. It worked.

Daniel asked, "What's the last thing you remember?"

"Pancakes."

Everyone but Sam looked confused.

Glancing around at everybody and seeing that he was obviously on a spaceship, Jack asked again, "What's going on?"

"Oh, not much," Daniel said. "You've just built a mini Dakara weapon, discovered another city ship, flew Atlantis, and destroyed possibly all the Wraith in the Pegasus galaxy in the last three days."

Jack's eyebrows rose. "Busy then?"

"Just a little."

"We've got a slight problem, sir."

"Do tell, Mitchell."

"A rogue group has gotten a hold of the Sator Aevum."

Jack looked at Daniel with his explain-the-big-alien-words-please expression.

"The name of the Dakara weapon."

"Ah." Jack got up from the pod bed. "Well then, let's go find it shall we?"

* * *

SG-1 walked back into the gate room of Atlantis, where it looked decidedly less like a party atmosphere.

John walked down to greet them. "Sir," he directed to Jack with a nod of his head.

"What happened, Colonel?"

"Directly after you left, the gate started dialing on its own and three of our people escaped in a jumper. We discovered they had taken the device with them shortly after that."

"What planet did they gate to?"

"McKay's trying to figure that out."

Sam stepped forward. "Wasn't someone up at operations?"

"Chuck was supposed to be."

Her eyebrows rose. "Supposed to be?"

"Chuck was one of the three in the jumper."

Sam's shock radiated off her face. "Chuck is one of the rogue group?"

"Yes ma'am. As well as Lt. Graves and Dr. Omar."

Too stunned to speak, Jack retook control of the conversation for her. "Who do we think they're working for?"

"You'd know more about that than me, sir. Can't say I know much about Earth based rogue groups. As far as I was concerned until about thirty minutes ago, those three were loyal long term members of this expedition."

Coming back to herself, Sam said, "I need to get to McKay. If he doesn't know where they went by now, they must have set up a program to block his access."

Three hours later, they finally had a lock. It had taken both the efforts of Sam and Rodney to crack the code. Some of the lines and pieces of code went back years. Whoever was behind this had been waiting for an opportunity like this for a long time. And was very very good.

SG-1 and SGA-1 geared up to leave.

While strapping on her vest, Sam said, "Obviously, they'll have gated to another planet once they left here. Rodney and I will have to determine the next address they went to, but it will take some time."

Cam asked, "How much time?"

Grimacing, Sam admitted, "It could take a while."

Rodney huffed. "Please. I can figure it out easily. It won't take any time at all."

Sam barely refrained from rolling her eyes but secretly hoped he was right. The damage that a device like the Sator Aevum could cause in the wrong hands ...it was scary to think about.

The wormhole established and everyone started to head toward the gate when Jack stopped them.

"Everybody got everything? Sidearms, C4, ...toothbrushes?"

Blinking eyes and several odd looks were his reply.

Daniel licked his lips. "Jack, are you okay?"

Flipping the cover to his watch, Jack answered, "Peachy, Daniel. Why?"

Brows furrowed in his I'm-torn-between-being-concerned-for-you-and-just-thinking-you're-strange face, Daniel replied, "No reason."

"Okay then." Jack backed toward the wormhole and flipped the cover back on his watch. "Let's head out."

Jack walked through the wormhole and Daniel walked to follow beside Colonel Sheppard, shaking his head at his friend's odd behavior.

Right as Daniel came nose to shimmering puddle, the wormhole snapped off. Blinking at the back wall of the gate room, Daniel surmised, "Well, that was rude."

Lifting the burnt-off tip of his P90, John said, "Tell me about it."

"What just happened?"

John turned on his heels. "Rodney?"

"I don't know. Just give me a minute," replied the scientist. John could practically see the ideas and formulas running through Rodney's head.

Sam ordered the gate to be redialed, but after trying, the technician informed her that it wouldn't lock.

"What?!"

Sam and Rodney ran up to the operations center, trying to find the problem.

John asked, "Is this the rogue group again?"

Sam, still typing, responded, "It's probably a fail safe of their code that we missed."

McKay, equally as busy, disagreed. "We didn't miss anything!"

While it appeared that they obviously did, Sam had to agree with him.

Cameron took a look at the DHD and dialed an address. It locked and the wormhole was established. Seeing everyones looks, he shrugged. "I had a hunch."

"Okay," John said. "We gate to another planet and then use that DHD to dial the one the General's on."

Sam shook her head. "That won't work. They gated to the Milky Way galaxy. Atlantis is the only gate that has a control crystal. Without it, we can't dial an eight symbol address."

Cam tilted his head. "So, dial the SGC and we'll gate from there."

Sam was about to acquiesce when, "Woah! Daniel? What does this say? My Ancient's a little rusty."

Daniel walked over to her computer screen and read, "E romel. E komai."

He translated, "I'm sorry. I lied."

McKay ranted, "That doesn't even make sense. Why would the rogue group be apologizing?"

Daniel huffed a disbelieving laugh. "It's not them. It's Jack."


	8. Chapter 8

_Author's Reply to Reviews:_

_not a zatarc - lol. I love that. 'oh boy. what does he think he's doing?' I hope this chapter answers your questions. _

_PapayaK - I know, right?! Daniel's the one I think I have the most fun with 'naming' his expressions because he just says so much through looks alone. Oh, and I did change that in chapter six. And really, intensive purposes doesn't make sense at all, but it's one of those things where you grow up saying it a certain way and you know what it means but you don't really think about it because it's just a saying. Oh well._

_lkhoward88 - I don't know. Were you right?_

_Devilish Me - You shall see._

_Liery - Glad to see I've thrown you for a loop. :D_

_atlantisbabe34 - Thank you!_

_HAZMOT - I agree with you. Two cliffhangers. So, yes, evil. But I couldn't help myself. It worked out perfectly to end the chapter there. I'm pretty sure most all your questions will be answered in this chapter._

_pain in the mikta - Breathless! Wow! I think you'll find there's at least one more big twist. ;)_

_VinterNatt - Thanks. Glad you like! I think all your questions will be answered in this chapter._

_JimBeamer5 - I agree. But SG1 would have had no reason to wait once they got back to Earth to remove the knowledge from Jack's mind, in fact, time was of the essence. So I needed the rogue group to act quickly for that reason. Also, the rogue group has been waiting for something they could take and they'd found their opportunity. Atlantis was in a state of relaxation as it were in regards to protocol as they were celebrating the defeat of the Wraith so it was also opportune in that way for the rogue group as well. So while it was super quick, in its ways, it did make sense._

_Firewolfe - Thank ya, ma'am._

* * *

Author's Note: Language warning.

_Previously_

_Sam was about to acquiesce when, "Woah! Daniel? What does this say? My Ancient's a little rusty."_

_Daniel walked over to her computer screen and read, "E romel. E komai."_

_He translated, "I'm sorry. I lied."_

_McKay ranted, "That doesn't even make sense. Why would the rogue group be apologizing?"_

_Daniel huffed a disbelieving laugh. "It's not them. It's Jack."_

* * *

**Chapter 8**

"What?", Rodney shrieked even as Sam said, "No! We performed the procedure, Daniel. Jack doesn't have the Ancient knowledge anymore. I saw the scans myself."

"Evidently not. I mean he was acting weird the whole time down in the gate room and then this message..."

More code scrolled across Sam's screen. Rodney stood over her shoulder. "That's it. That's the crack to the code right there. All we have to do is enter it."

Sam, furious and disbelieving, temporarily forgot that she wasn't in command of this facility anymore, and ordered Rodney to fix the program so they could dial the planet.

Dialing the gate herself, John asked where she was going.

"Earth. I'm going back to the Odyssey to check the scans. Don't leave without me. If Jack did what I think he did, I'm going to kick his ass."

* * *

Sam looked over the scans. "Son of a bitch."

"What?", Daniel asked.

"The last scan that the computer took after we performed the procedure..."

"Yeah?"

"It's the exact same scan as Jack's on record. I don't know how he took control of the system or prevented the program from removing the information but he did. Damn it, Daniel! Why would he do this?"

Daniel winced. "Sam, you said yourself if Jack didn't get the repository information out of his head he'd be dead. Maybe whatever he's got planned, he knows he won't be coming back."

* * *

The gate snapped off behind Jack as he stepped foot on the planet. Looking at his watch again, he nodded in approval at the perfect timing.

While everyone else was busy trying to crack the code left by the rogue group, Jack wrote up a program that would have the gate on a timer the next time that gate address was dialed. He had ten minutes before his message would alert them how to the redial this planet.

Sam was going to be so pissed off when she found out. Reasonably so, but they'd already lost so much time tracking these guys and it would take Carter and McKay too long to figure out where the three rogues had gated to next. If the three were especially careful, they probably gated several times before reaching their final destination.

All of which was why Jack had lied. When he got in the pod, he had already figured out how to halt the Asgard technology that would extract the information from his brain and use it to hack into the computer mainframe. There, he simply took a copy the Asgard had on file of his normal brain activity to make it appear that the procedure had worked and put it in the expected location. Finally, Jack accessed the language sector of his own brain and made the English language available for him to use, making the illusion complete.

Yep, Carter was going to be pissed.

Jack lifted his hand over the DHD and different symbols lit up randomly at rapid fire pace. He would know soon enough where the rogue group went.

* * *

Daniel and Sam entered the operations center of Atlantis.

"Are we ready to go?"

"Still streaming," Rodney replied distractedly.

Daniel came to a halt. "Wait. You're still not done?"

"Did you see the size of that code?!," Rodney exclaimed incredulously. "You can't exactly just copy and paste this type of thing. The General had hours to write this up. I've had thirty minutes!"

* * *

Jack's eyes opened as he locked on the gate address and dialed out. This was the fourth planet he had gated to. Stepping through the wormhole, the first thing Jack felt was the intense wave of heat. The next was that he was now on a desert planet. Peachy. Now he was gonna have sand in places sand should never ever be. Pulling out the life signs detector he had stolen from Sheppard, Jack found no immediate threat was in the area.

A bright light caught his eye in the distance. Metal reflection. Jack grabbed his binoculars, scanning the area. Unless it was a mirage, there was a tent on the horizon and what looked like might very well be the Sator Aevum by its side. Nice.

The puddle jumper was no where in sight but that didn't mean it wasn't cloaked. This was not good. Here he was in green BDU's on a desert planet with absolutely no cover. A man could not possibly be sneaky in this situation.

* * *

"Done!", Rodney shouted, his fingers actually trembling from prolonged typing at such a rapid speed.

The gate started to dial and the team members made their way down the stairs to the gate room.

They walked onto a forested planet with stone ruins nearby. Sam and Rodney instantly set to work on the DHD while the others were left to sit and wait ...again. Daniel made his way to the ruins, curious about what kind of culture built them and wondering who or what caused them to be deserted. The writing on the stone walls was severely faded, but Daniel could faintly make out some of the words. They were pictographs. Rounding a corner to see more, Daniel stopped at black symbols smudged over the text. There were seven. A gate address. Daniel ran his finger through the edge of one of the symbols, lifting it to his nose. It smelled like ...camouflage paint.

"Saamm?", he called. "I think I know the next address."

Sam and Rodney exchanged confused glances and Sam got up, dusting herself off to go see what Daniel was talking about. When she reached him, Daniel said, "Jack left us a message."

Some of the others had followed Sam over and Ronon asked, "Why would he leave the address all the way over here? Why not at the gate?"

Daniel shrugged. "He knew I'd come look at the ruins while we waited."

* * *

"Found it," Vala shouted, the others gathering round the address written in the dirt. This was the fourth planet they'd gated to. Jack left the next address for them to follow at each new location.

"If General O'Neill did not intend for us to go with him, why is it he leaves us the addresses with which to follow him?", Teyla asked in her cautiously confused manner.

While Daniel dialed the address, he answered, "Jack knew it would take us too long to trace the rogue team's steps if they gated to several different planets, which they did. But he also knew that we would never allow him to walk away from having the procedure done to remove the Ancient knowledge from his brain. So, he tricked us, allowing him to do things his own stubborn way. He obvious wants us to be able to follow him and assist but most likely felt it was best to not be where his wife could maim him. Actually, I'm feeling kind of homicidal toward him myself at the moment, so who knows."

* * *

Jack checked the life signs detector again. Nobody home. He'd made his way the whole distance to the tent and sphere with no problem at all. Evidently, the three misfits had taken the jumper somewhere else, leaving their prize behind. If that didn't sound fishy and a good deal stupid, Jack didn't know what did. But he'd go with it. Opening the sphere, Jack saw that they had already removed the two ZPM's. Not good. Though, them having ZPM's was better than them having a device that could exterminate all life in the galaxy. Filling up the void with some lovely C4, Jack closed the lid. Now all he had to do was walk a little ways away, flip the switch, kaboom, and problem solved.

A gun cocked behind him and Jack whirled around, standing from his crouched position.

"Ah, ah, ah, General." warned a foofy haired chubby little man.

Five guns pointed at him. Not good. Jack recognized one of the group as Lt. Graves. He'd hand selected the young marine for the Atlantis expedition. "Lt, drop your weapon."

He smirked. "No, sir."

The foofy haired man spoke again. "And don't even think about using any Ancient abilities on us, O'Neill. You really wanna risk that you can control five guns at once?"

Nope. Really really not good. The man had no reason to keep Jack alive and Jack could see that he had no intention of doing so in his expression. This weapon _could not_ be allowed to stay in their hands.

Jack scanned the horizon.

Well, there was only one thing left to do.

* * *

Sam stepped through the wormhole to an intense heat that instantly made her pores sweat. Before her eyes could fully adjust to the bright sunlight, a loud explosion sounded to her left. A vast fireball rose in the sky and her heart seized in her chest. Taking no heed to wait for the others, Sam took off at a dead run toward the explosion.

How she'd honestly expected something to be able to survive that large of an explosion Sam didn't know, but the large crater proved that anything that was here most definitely wasn't anymore. All Jack had had on him that Sam knew about was C4. It couldn't pack that kind of punch ...unless the metal that the sphere was made of was fire conducive.

Cam walked down into the crater, spotting half of a barely recognizable P90. He scanned the area surrounding the weapon, hoping he didn't find what he was looking for. Mitchell's eyes latched on to something shiny and his stomach plummeted. Picking them up with the end of his weapon, Cam stared at a pair of US issued dog tags.

"Sam," he choked.

She stopped in her tracks and turned to look at him. He had tears in his eyes and in his hand he held up a dirty pair of dog tags. She didn't have to read the name to know whose they were. His wedding ring was hanging off the chain.

Sam's eyes sealed shut against the sight and her hand slapped over her mouth to muffle the sob that broke out of her chest as she fell to her knees. Arms were around her in an instant, holding her as she wept. Whose they were she had no idea. Because they weren't him. They would never be his arms again.


	9. Chapter 9

_Author's Reply to Reviews:_

_Wow! First of all, I'd just like to say thanks to all the reviews from last chapter. I guess I did something right because I've never gotten that many reviews all at once before._

_Entropic Cascade - I guess you'll just have to wait and see._

_PapayaK - Lol. I'll say again, you shall see._

_Firewolfe - I would, that's for sure. lol_

_Nessie1701 - Thank you. And maybe. Ya never know._

_PatriciaS - I love the way you wrote that like you were trying to convince yourself as you typed it. How do you know that I just didn't have enough options? I mean, you can only list two. Maybe I just felt that it was more romance than tragedy or more adventure than tragedy? Or maybe I just didn't want to ruin the surprise? ;) Oh, and Cam with tears. I wasn't sure if I wanted to play it that way at first but on thinking back on the show, Cam does show that emotional side of him on occasion. I also think that as time has progressed and Sam and Jack have gotten married, that Cam and Jack have gotten to know each other better as friends. Not to mention the fact that Cam would be torn up simply because one of his best friends just lost her husband and he knows the pain that's going to cause her. I don't actually think you were looking for an explanation of that, more just making an observation, but I wanted to point out my thought pattern there anyway. Thank you!_

_Chezza - LOL! I hadn't heard that one before. Too funny._

_Aveo amacus - I'm sorry. I can't. Tell you that is. That would be so unfair to possibly be giving things away for you. ;)_

_VinterNatt - You just have to love SciFi. Where else can someone quite possibly explode and you say...he's not really dead, right? lol_

_ccdsah - ahahahhaha. I bow to Brad Wright. He is amazing and will write something far far FAR more spectacular than this I am sure. But I do thank you for the compliment._

_alwayssmilingsam - He couldn't? ;)_

_Liery - I can think of some people that would be right with you in that._

_gater62 - Thank you. I hope it continues to be a good story for you._

_not a zatarc - Tissue? (holds out hanky)_

_Lady-Dulcinea - Lol, I like that. Sneaky. Hmm. Who says he doesn't just wear his ring on his dog tags on missions? That's what I had in mind anyway._

_HAZMOT - So happy to hear you loved it! Your review made me smile real big! Thank you._

_Kedd - lol. I don't know if I realized how evil I was before I wrote this story. But that's what everyone keeps telling me. hehheh. Thank you much for the characterization props. I try._

_atlantisbabe34 - lol. I think it kills me more than the reviewers sometimes to wait to post. I get so anxious...okay not anxious, but just really really wanting to know what the reviewers think of the next chapter. Was it crap? Did they like it? Should I change something? But I'm keeping firm. One chapter a day. Gives everyone a chance to read it before I post a new chapter. Thanks for the review!_

_vball2003 - You're right. He is Jack. But who knows? ;)_

_Cocoa Girl2 - Hmm. That's an interesting idea._

_sg1star - I like that idea. Wish I would have thought of it. It would take the story in a completely different direction from what I've got going though. But I still like what you suggested._

_pain in the mikta - Should I call a doctor?_

_Harm Marie - Awww. Jack would be so proud._

* * *

Why couldn't she be one of those women who passed out under emotional strain? It would be so much better than this, Sam thought wretchedly. But damn him! Damn him and his stubborn self sacrificing pride! He promised her! And he wasn't here!

Sam gasped in a deep shuddered breath in surprise, stilling on Daniel's shoulder. _You have got to be kidding me!_

Someone clicked off their gun safety behind her and she knew it was Teal'c. Silently, Sam gripped Daniel's thigh. He lifted his head from her shoulder and looked at her with red rimmed eyes.

Whispering, she told him, "I can sense something."

In front of her, Vala froze, turning to look at her with wide eyes. She felt it too.

Daniel's face clearly expressed what her thoughts had been but a moment ago. Silently signaling the others, they all crept to the top of the crater. Right as her head went to look over, boots filled Sam's line of vision. Along with not one, but two staff weapon heads.

"Colonel Carter," came a very unwelcome familiar voice. "What a pleasure it brings me to see you again."

Fury welled up in the very pit of her soul. Her voice dark and low, Sam threatened, "Ba'al, so help me, if you're behind this, I _will_ kill you."

He laughed haughtily. "I highly doubt that, Colonel. You've tried so many times before, but you keep forgetting one important thing," he crouched down to where his face was close to hers, "I am a god."

Vala huffed. "Really, darling. You need to find a better line than that. Its so last season."

Ba'al made no hesitation in using the hand device to send Vala flying through the air. When she landed in the dirt, she coughed and lifted herself up on her elbows, commenting, "Oh, I really haven't missed that."

"Silence!" He glared fiercely at her. Turning his attention back to Sam, Ba'al clarified in his superior fashion, "I am sorry to disappoint you, Colonel, but I had nothing to do with this. I have only just arrived."

"And I'm to believe you had nothing to do with the rogue group in the SG ranks."

He smiled again. "I never said that." Ba'al looked at the stand-off currently going on between his Jaffa and the Taur'i. "Come now. You are vastly outnumbered. Why make it hard on yourselves?"

When no one budged, he sighed dramatically. "The Taur'i, always so stubborn."

Raising his hand device again, Ba'al activated it but instead of it's typical red glow, it burned blue. Their weapons ripped from their hands, straight into the air. Except in the case of Ronon. He had been gripping his weapons so tightly that he was pulled into the air right along with them.

Ba'al was highly amused by this. "And who have we here?"

Ronon glared at him, hanging by his two guns ten feet off the ground.

Receiving no answer, Ba'al moved the guns, forcing Ronon's arms to bend behind him at an awkward angle.

"Ronon, let them go!", John shouted.

"Ah, Ronon Dex," Ba'al said aloud. "Of Atlantis. Then you must be Colonel Sheppard, Teyla Emmagan, and Dr. McKay."

Rodney's eyes widened fearfully. "You know who we are?"

John sarcastically answered, "Hey guys. We're famous!"

Ba'al calmly replied, "My informants have told me much of Atlantis," smiling at the fury that came over John's face at his comment.

Looking back at the imposing Satedan, still angrily gripping to his weapons, Ba'al said, "This one would make an excellent Jaffa."

"Over my dead body!", John raged.

"That can be arranged, Colonel. I have little use for you."

Ba'al motioned at the Jaffa currently aiming his weapon at Teyla. The staff head opened in front of her face. If anything, Ronon's glare became more deadly. Releasing his weapons, he fell to the ground below.

With a flick of Ba'al's hand, the weapons rose high in the air and were hurled far behind him.

Looking over the hand device, he said, "Lovely little upgrade, isn't it? Now, let's have the rest of them, shall we?"

Sam sighed and began to comply, removing her sidearm from its holster. Behind her, John asked, "Colonel?"

"Do it, John."

Not wanting to comply, John nonetheless did, motioning for his team to do the same.

Weapons on the ground, Ba'al smiled triumphant. "Good."

Placing his hand on his wrist, Ba'al pressed a button there and a bright light enveloped them all.

When Sam could see again, she came very close to groaning.

"What is this place?," Teyla asked.

"It is a holding cell on a Goa'uld mothership.", Teal'c informed her solemnly.

"I thought you guys defeated the Gould a long time ago."

Sam looked up at John. "We did. As a powerful race. There are still Goa'uld we encounter occasionally but they are nothing without followers. Jaffa and humans all over the galaxy have abandoned them."

"What about this one?" Ronon asked. "He seemed to have plenty of people following him to me."

Daniel pushed his glasses up his nose. "Ba'al has used brainwashing techniques in the past to get people to do his bidding."

"So, the rogues from Atlantis," John tilted his head forward in question, "they could have been brainwashed."

"It's possible."

Cameron stood up from his spot on the floor. "Yeah, well what I want to know is how Ba'al even came in contact with them in the first place."

Sam stared unseeingly in front of her, trying to focus on one thing at a time. She could not think about Jack right now. She had to get her people home. _She_ had to get home. There was absolutely no way she would leave Nathan completely parentless.

"And no one noticed any strange behavior whatsoever?" Vala asked, twirling away from the prison bars to face everyone. "No dropping in a little 'kree' or 'lord' every now and again?"

"No," Sam countered. "Ba'al's too good for that. He's not just your typical power hungry meglomaniac. He's a genius with technology. Studies everything in detail before he executes a plan. And can be unbelievably resourceful."

Seemingly switching topics, she continued, "If Ba'al has contacts in Atlantis, that means he most likely has some in the SGC as well. Everyone will have to go under za'tarc testing when we get back."

"And how exactly do we plan on doing that? Getting back that is?," Rodney asked. "Because from where I'm sitting, we're looking pretty screwed."

"Ronon?"

"Yeah."

"How many knives do you have?"

He smirked. "How many do you need?"


	10. Chapter 10

_Author's Reply to Reviews:_

_AT Fan - (For Chapter 5) Sorry! I don't think about spoilers in my stories. I always just assume. Sorry if I ruined anything for you. :( (For chapter 6) Hello, my name is whatatragiccomedy, and I love cliffhangers. ...The first step to recovery is admitting the problem. ;) (For Chapter 8) Hmm...ya never know. (For Chapter 9) Some Jack ahead...though not how you might expect. _

_VinterNatt - As I told AT Fan, there's some Jack ahead ...but not necessarily what you're expecting. Hmm? I just love Ba'al, don't you? And I'm finding him incredibly hard to write because the main thing I love about Ba'al is his expressions. Like that time when Sam punched him and he just smirks and shakes his head. Greatness! Terribly hard for me to write that though._

_vball2003 - Glad you liked. As I told VinterNatt, I love Ba'al so I really thought he'd be a nice unexpected twist to the story. And oh, tsk. I just didn't write about Jack for one chapter. One! lol._

_PatriciaS - I don't know how much of seasons 9 and 10 I've watched myself actually. But I've seen two separate episodes where Cam cries or almost cries. And seeing as how that's about how much of 'almost crying' we got from Jack for all 8 seasons he was a regular, I'm gonna go with that Cam's a more openly emotional character. lol. And yes, I know exactly what you mean. Ba'al's my favorite baddie. But he's very hard for me to write. As I told VinterNatt, I love his expressions more than what he necessarily says. He is soo good with giving this just great expression in response to something but that's always the hardest for me to try and get across in a story. LOL...hiding in the sand. I love that. Wouldn't that just be hilarious?_

_not a zatarc - When does he not? lol_

_ccdsah - That Ronon line at the end is actually stolen from an episode. I don't know the name of it but it's one with Lt. Ford after he's gone all Wraith druggie. But I thought it was hilarious when I saw it in the show and it fit in for what I was needing for this so I put it in. So I get no credit for that. Though the gun thing was me. And no comment about Jack. :)_

_Entropic Cascade - I love that ...'I refuse to say died'. And yes, Ba'al is so the best bad guy ever. Love him. _

_gater62 - I love surprises!_

_HAZMOT - If it came off that Ba'al knew that the Sator Aevum would be made and used, then I'm sorry. Let's just say that his rogues were looking for an opportunity to take something that would be worth blowing their cover. It would have to be something huge because they wouldn't be allowed to go back to Atlantis once they left. A portable life creator/destroyer with two ZPM's would be worth it, so that's why they struck then. Not because they were waiting and expecting that machine to be made._

_Harm Marie - lol. You just have to love Ba'al. There's something about him._

_pain in the mikta - The doctor will be with you in a moment..._

_Nessie1701 - I do love Ba'al. He's just the best. I'd love to write a story of how I think he becomes a good guy just so I could like him even more._

_Lutherian - I will keep going, thanks!_

_JimBeamer5 - lol. What "really" happened? I've got a bunch of conspiracy theory readers! lol And as I've said probably enough times by now that I should have just included it in an overall review, I love Ba'al. He's the best baddie ever._

_Ellie 5192 - Why thank you! I'm so glad you like!_

* * *

The clank of Jaffa footsteps could be heard coming toward the cell. All nine SG members crammed on either side of the prison door, making the cell appear empty to anyone passing by. If they were lucky, whoever opened their cell would think that they had somehow escaped, entering unaware of the appending attack. And even if he wasn't that stupid, from the positioning of the door he would be at a disadvantage walking into the cell and they could easily overtake him. Especially with Teal'c and Ronon at the forefront, armed and itching for action.

The cell door opened and everyone waited with baited breath for the prison guard to come into view. Instead of the armor clad warrior they were expecting, a small round metal ball rolled into their cell. A bright light enveloped the room and all in its sight crumpled to the floor.

John woke with a pounding head in a pitch black room. Groaning into a crouching position, his leg came into contact with what could have been another leg. Before he could investigate further, John was punched hard in the back of the head. A familiar growl accompanied the hit and John made a small mental note that he was probably spending too much time with Ronon if he could recognize the man's growls as he was hurled forward. His hand impacted hard with some other part of someone else's body if the 'oomph' was anything to go by and John took another hit to the head. This time a strong uppercut.

"Ow!", he yelled. "Stop hitting me!!"

"John?"

"Yes! God, who did you think it was?!" He cupped the aching side of his face in his hand. Damn Teyla and her perfect aim.

"I am sorry," she said. "I am unable to see and thought I was being attacked."

"I can't see anything either," Ronon gruffly called from some distant section of the darkness.

"Give it a second. You're vision will start coming back."

"Dr. Jackson?"

"Yep." He sounded irked. "We were hit with a Goa'uld stun grenade."

"Everybody else okay?," John called.

"Oh god," moaned a now blurry lump to the left of him. The lump gasped.

"Rodney?"

"Sheppard?"

"You okay?"

"No! I can't see anything. I ...I can't be blind! This is bad. This is very very bad."

"Rodney, calm down. It's only temporary."

"Oh. Okay. That's ...that's good."

John's vision was mainly back in focus. "Where is everyone else?"

Daniel sat on the floor with his arms resting on his bent knees leaning against the cell wall. "I don't know. We were the only ones here when I woke up."

"We have been moved," Teyla observed, eying the cross section prison bars that was now the front of their current cell critically.

"Guess they thought we had too much privacy before."

The whole front wall was made of the cross sectioned bars, preventing any future sneak attacks on their part from happening.

John shifted his position on the floor. "Where would they take them?"

"Well," Daniel said in a resigned monotone, "Ba'al's a one on one kind of guy. So most likely either Teal'c or Sam is currently with him, and the other three are in another holding cell somewhere on the ship."

"Why do you think he has Teal'c or Colonel Carter?"

Daniel glanced at Ronon briefly before answering him. "Mitchell and Vala haven't done much to piss off. Teal'c and Sam helped bring an end to his entire empire, humiliating him. And Teal'c started the Jaffa rebellion."

"Yeah, about that. _Ba'al_," Ronon said in such a way as to show how absurd he thought the name was, "said I'd make a good Jaffa. How is that possible?"

"Being Jaffa doesn't signify a planet someone was born or even necessarily a race of people in all technicality. Jaffa were once humans that the Goa'uld altered to their needs. They use the jaffa to incubate their young."

"No way in hell," Ronon stated firmly.

"So, Teal'c has one of these Goa'uld residing somewhere in his body now?," Teyla asked with equal parts horror, disgust, and something akin to compassion on her features.

Daniel shook his head. "Not anymore. His symbiote died and he was started on a drug called tretonin. It acts as an immune system for him and Teal'c has to take injections every day otherwise he'll die."

"So, anotherwords," John concluded, "we don't have much time to find another way out of here."

"No. Not really."

* * *

A sharp pain running the length of the back of her body brought Sam to awareness. She felt like she was being pulled _through _the floor, if that even made sense. Which it really didn't. Opening her eyes, Ba'al loomed above her, seemingly with his feet planted on a wall. Which made even less sense. As did the current sideways decoration of everything in the room. Trying to lift her arm and finding it damn near impossible to do so, Sam came to the startling realization of where she was. Jack had described Ba'al's penchant for messing with gravity, including this very same torturous gravity wall. Of course, that one had been on land, not in a Goa'uld mothership.

Ba'al sat on his 'throne', linking his fingers together, the picture of relaxation.

"What is the gate address for the second city ship?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

He smirked indulgently at her. "I know you have this information, Colonel. Tell me and I will spare you the agony of torture."

Her snort was enough to tell him what she thought of that.

"You do not believe me? I am a fair and merciful god, Colonel. I do all that is necessary to gain the information I need, but I reward those who have provided me with such. O'Neill can attest to this."

Anger flared in her eyes at the mention of Jack. Ba'al fairly grinned at her. "I must say that it will bring me great joy when I inform O'Neill of your capture."

Her heart stuttered even as her anger rose. "You'll just have to forgo that pleasure."

Ba'al adjusted the hand device on his arm. "Oh? And why is that?"

"Because he's dead."

Ba'al's face registered brief shock. Then his annoyingly condescending smile returned. "If that is indeed the case, Colonel, then my day has just gotten even better."

Raising the hand device but as of yet not activating it, Ba'al asked again slowly, "Where is the second city ship?"

"You should know by now, Ba'al ...I won't tell you anything."

"Very well." His face flickered with annoyance as blue light radiated from his palm.

Sam didn't know what to expect as the only experience she'd had with this upgraded hand device involved guns flying through the air. But the effect was instantaneous and very very painful. While her body still felt like it was trying to pull through the openings of the 'floor' she was on, something inside her pulled forward, longing to escape the confines of her skin and reach the hand device. Her very blood burned in her veins like super-heated liquid metal.

Ba'al lowered his hand, leaving her panting for breath and slick with sweat. Sam's insides throbbed, a tingling burn still lingering.

"Unpleasant, isn't it? I originally intended this device for use on fellow Goa'uld. Simply a super sophisticated magnet of sorts, really. As you now know, it works equally as well on you, attracting the Naqahdah in your blood."

He lifted his hand. "Where. Is. The. Ship?"

Ba'al's eyes glowed in the wake of her silence and the process started again.

* * *

Sam opened her eyes and found she was on the dock at her and Jack's cabin.

"Hey."

Jack sat beside her, leaning back on the palms of his hands.

She blinked slowly several times. "I'm hallucinating, aren't I?"

He shrugged. "Something like that. You're in the sarcophagus."

Sam was tired. Emotionally, physically, mentally tired. The last thing she could remember was what seemed like hours of the blue hand device scorching her from the inside out.

"Don't think about that."

She glared at the hallucination. "Oh, you're psychic now too?"

"I am _in_ your head."

Sam reluctantly conceded that point. Looking over the water, she accused, "You lied, Jack."

"No I didn't."

"You said you'd come back."

"I'm here, aren't I?"

She huffed a disbelieving laugh, tears blurring her vision as she lay her head on his shoulder. Jack wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer. Hugging her to him, he breathed in the scent of her hair and _god_, she thought, _if it didn't feel real_.

"It had to be done." His chest rumbled against her back as he spoke.

Sam closed her eyes against the words. She didn't want to hear about duty and sacrifice and heroism. Not here. Not now.

"I'm not strong enough."

"What?," he asked, thoroughly confused.

"I can't do this without you."

"Yes, you can. Just give the guys some time to get you out. They're working on it."

"I'm not talking about Ba'al."

Jack didn't respond other than to pull her tighter to him.

"This hurts worse than any torture Ba'al could throw at me."

Jack nudged her away from his chest so he could look in her eyes. Running his fingers through her hair, he glanced at her lips before pulling her into a kiss. Sam didn't want to let him go, knowing he wasn't really there but finding she really didn't care.

Jack released her, face still inches away from hers, hand tangled in her hair. "Don't give up on me just yet, Carter."


	11. Chapter 11

Today's your lucky day, kids. I'm going out of town tomorrow night and won't be back til Sunday night so I'm going to post the rest of the chapter's today and tomorrow.

_Author's Reply to Reviews:_

_Entropic Cascade - lol your review truly made me laugh. Especially the nods head wisely part. Cracked me up. Thanks._

_Fred the Wraith - lol Chuck ...I did it because, well, it was funny. And unexpected. I mean, Chuck ...evil? Makes me laugh just thinking about it. Seeing him at his little console thinking evil thoughts. Yeah, maybe I'm demented but I thought it was funny. Oh, and thank you for reading the story and posting such a great review!_

_Chezza - Yeah, if the Others would let Jack do whatever he wanted, well, that could be a story all by itself. For one, Jack would make a diverse universe. He would so make a planet Oz, probably a cartoon planet, and one with purple trees. Then he would slowly drive Ba'al into madness by one, making him here 'voices' and two, foiling all his evil plans. And really, who could pull better pranks than an ascended being? _

_VinterNatt - Thank you, thank you, thank you._

_AT Fan - About Rodney - probably. But it's something he hasn't had any contact with in at least like eight years and he had JUST woken up when he was confused about not being able to see so cut him a little slack if he didn't automatically pull 'goa'uld stun grenade' out of his brain. About Jack - Just because he didn't talk about it on the show doesn't mean it didn't happen, but I agree in the thinking that Jack didn't talk about it any more than he had to. But that's the thing, he had to in his report. To leave out that kind of technology in a report would be a big no no._

_not a zatarc - Ba'al says, "That really hurt! You shall pay for this insolence!"_

_Nessie1701 - Thanks!_

* * *

Ronon clenched his jaw tightly. They'd been sitting here for _hours _with no contact from anyone. When Ronon finally heard the clanking of armor, he practically leapt to his feet.

A guard opened the door to the cell and pointed a weird curvy looking weapon in his face.

"You will come before your Lord Ba'al."

Oh, he was so done with this. Ronon surged forward. A bright blue stream of light shot out of the Jaffa's weapon, and Ronon felt every nerve in his body snap in shock. Still moving forward, he was able to swing his arm in a powerful hit to the face before he fell to his knees.

From the doorway, the second Jaffa prepared to fire his zat. Daniel lunged in the air to block the zat blast from hitting Ronon, convulsing in mid air before he hit the ground. Meanwhile, John grabbed the first Jaffa's zat and fired, dropping the other guard to the floor.

Ronon shook his head to clear his brain, down on his hands and knees on the floor. Someone grunted to his right and he saw Dr. Jackson rise to a sitting position grabbing his head.

"I really really hate those things."

Ronon wasn't inclined to like them much himself. His heart was still pounding and if it wasn't for his anger causing his adrenaline to pump wildly, he was pretty sure his brain would be a pile of mush.

Ronon stood shakily and offered the doctor a hand. "Thanks."

"Yeah, well, we couldn't have you dying right after you'd opened the way for escape."

"Dying?"

Daniel picked up the second guard's zat gun. "Second shot from a zat kills."

"Good to know."

Teyla stepped next to Ronon. "We should stick to the plan. Go to the armory, find the others, and then..."

"Yes, yes, everything else," Rodney butted in. "How exactly do we plan on finding the armory?"

John found one of Ronon's knives on the first fallen guard. Ronon grabbed it out of his hand and John frowned.

"This way." Daniel pointed right with his head and then headed out in the hall.

"How do you know?" Rodney asked loudly.

Daniel turned and silently shushed him with a and-you're-still-alive-_how_ face.

Whispering, Daniel answered, "All Goa'uld ships practically look the same."

"Big, gaudy, and overdone?"

"There's that ...and they typically put everything in the same locations."

The group walked in front of an open doorway when Daniel stopped, peering inside.

"You guys go ahead. I'm gonna check out this computer terminal to see where Ba'al's holding the others."

"We don't know where we're going!!"

"Uh, all you have to do is go down this hallway. The first intersection you get to turn right. It'll be the third door on your left."

Ronon and John started to walk off, but Daniel threw his hands up in the air and quickly amended, "No! Wait! Second door! Second door on your left."

The two teammates shared quick glances before John asked, "You're sure?"

"Yes. Positive."

John gave a curt nod, then motioned with his head the direction they were going and called, "Rodney."

"I'm, uh, going to stay with Dr. Jackson."

John raised his eyebrows. Rodney shifted on his feet. "What?! I'm the geek. I should be with the computer. Not only do we need to find the others, but the ZPM's, and..."

Ronon's knife whizzed past Rodney's head, landing with a fatal blow in a lone Jaffa that had been sneaking up to their location.

Rodney almost peed himself in shock. "Are you insane?!" he whispered harshly. "You could have killed me! I think you cut my ear. You so just cut my ear! Am I bleeding?"

"You are fine, Rodney," Teyla cut him off with exasperated patience.

Ronon walked over and retrieved his knife. "We need to move. He won't be hard to miss."

Daniel raised his zat, firing three times on the downed guard. He disappeared.

"I bet that saves on clean up," Ronon commented, kicking his foot through the air where the Jaffa had just been.

"Yes, well, I have a theory that what actually happens is that the person is shifted out of phase by exactly one hundred and eighty degrees so that..." Rodney continued talking as Daniel rolled his eyes and walked into the room with the computer terminal.

Ronon, Teyla, and John followed his example, walking down the corridor and leaving Rodney standing in the hall alone.

Indignant, Rodney muttered, "Well fine. The next time you need someone to pull a miracle out of their ass, I'll just go get coffee!"

* * *

"Okay. Second door on left..." John went to open the door and found Dr. Jackson left out one very important detail.

"What do aliens have against door knobs? I mean, really! Do all doors have to slide open?" He looked at the six symbol door lock warily. Tentatively reaching his hand out, John said, "I really hope this doesn't set off some kind of alarm," as he experimentally put in six random symbols.

Nothing happened. But hey, at least there wasn't an alarm sending innumerable Jaffa on their tails. John tried another. Nada. Ronon looked over his shoulder where he was standing guard to check on John's progress ...or lack there of.

Losing patience, Ronon reached out and bashed his hand over the symbols. The door didn't budge but John did give him a chiding look. Teyla crept up quietly from her position keeping watch at the intersection.

"Three of Ba'al's Jaffa are heading in this direction. What is taking so long?"

John pointed at the lock as if saying, 'See what I have to deal with?!'

Teyla quickly pressed five symbols in succession, the door opening on her command. Pulling both men in quickly, the door slid shut behind them. They heard the footfalls of the Jaffa clank past their doorway and once it was quiet again, John turned to Teyla accusedly. "And just how did you know the code to the door?"

"I observed a guard entering the symbols from our cell earlier."

"And you knew they'd be the same for every door?"

"No, but as we had an enemy enclosing on our position, I did not see the harm in trying it."

" ...Right."

Awkwardly turning away from the conversation, John saw that at least Dr. Jackson had gotten one thing right. They were in a weapons hold.

"Hey! My P90!," John exclaimed as if finding a long lost toy from his childhood.

"Found mine too," Ronon growled, holding up his blaster.

* * *

"There!" Daniel pointed. "Those are the only other holding cells in the ship." Directing McKay's attention to the right of the monitor, he said, "I think that's where we were held earlier. It stands to reason if they moved us, they most likely moved them as well."

"Can't we just turn on a life signs detector?"

"Ba'al doesn't appear to have that on this ship."

"What? Are you sure? That's ridiculous."

"Hey. I'm kinda glad personally. That means he can't see us roaming around either."

"Oh. Good point. Now we need to find where he put the ZedPM's."

McKay entered some information. "They're not here."

"What do you mean?"

"There's no record in the system of what he's done with them."

"Okay. Well, he just got them, right? They're probably in a storage area."

Rodney snapped his fingers several times. "No. Sam said he's really smart, right? Kind of like a scientist. Well, what do scientists do? They study things. Goa'uld have little knowledge of ZedPM's as far as I'm aware. Where's Ba'al's lab?"

Daniel typed in some information and another schematic came on the screen. He pointed to a section on the upper east side. "Here. This is his main lab."

"Main lab?"

"Well, he has three."

Daniel tapped his fingers on the console, looking deep in thought. "We need to destroy this."

"Destroying this wouldn't do much good, genius. God, you can tell you know nothing about computers. Unlike me."

A slight annoyance in his voice, Daniel clarified, "That's why when I said 'this', I was talking about the whole ship."

"Well that's not ambitious at all," Rodney very sarcastically replied.

"Do you think you could cause the weapons or engines to overload from this console?"

"And blow us all up in the process?! Yes, I could though I wouldn't recommend such an idiotic and suicidal move. You may come back from the dead all the time but the rest of us don't have nine lives to fall back on."

"Couldn't you set it on some kind of timer or remote based thing?"

"Do you even know anything about science? You have no idea what you're talking about!"

"That's okay. Don't worry about it. We'll just go find Sam. I'm sure she'll be able to figure something out."

"I didn't say I couldn't do it. I can do it. It's extremely easy."

"Okay. So ...do it."

Even as Rodney began to access the systems, he said, "It may be easy but it's still completely suicidal. If we don't get out of here before that timer runs out, we'll blow right along with the rest of this ship."

"So set it for a couple of days from now."

"It would be discovered by then."

"Tomorrow?"

"Still too long."

"10 hours?"

"You're being annoying on purpose, aren't you?"

"Just trying to repay the favor."

"Coffee," Rodney muttered. "I should so be getting coffee instead."

"You pull this off, McKay, and I'll buy you a whole stash of your favorite blend."

"I'll hold you to that."

"I know."

The door started to open and Daniel opened his zat. John stepped in, raising his hands quickly. "Woah! Just us."

Ronon and Teyla entered behind John and the door shut behind them.

"You almost done?," Ronon questioned. "Ba'al's bound to have noticed by now that his order to bring me didn't go to plan."

"Yes. Yes. Five more minutes."

"What are you doing?"

"He's setting up a bomb," Daniel answered for him.

"It is not a bomb!"

"Does the end result involve blowing the ship up?," Daniel countered.

"That still doesn't make it a bomb!"

Rodney entered a final key, and turned to face the group. "It makes it a timed weapons overload." Adjusting his watch to a timer, Rodney informed them, "We have thirty minutes to get off the ship before the weapons activate. They will be unable to discharge by my brilliant command and the charge will build until it overloads and blows up the ship."

"What?!" John exploded. "Thirty minutes?! Rodney you better as hell be joking..."

"What? We know where both the ZedPM's and the other holding cells are. We're armed. We get the ZedPM's, get everybody else, beam back down to the planet, and watch the fireworks."

Realizing there wasn't time to argue, John said, "Split up. Teyla, Rodney, Daniel - go find the ZPM's. Ronon and I will get the rest of the crew." He paused. "Where are the rest of the crew?"

Daniel pointed to the screen. "We're here. Once you go out the door, turn left and walk down that hallway until you pass the second hall on the right. Go down that hallway past three more on your left. The fourth hallway, turn left. Then turn directly to your right and they'll be in one of those holding cells. You shouldn't run into too many Jaffa until you reach that last hallway. Could be anywhere between five or ten in and around the holding cell area."

"Okay. Where do we need to go to get ...beamed?"

"The other end of the complex. But you'll be with the rest of my team by then and all you'll have to do is follow them. They'll know where to go."

"Right. Let's go." Glaring at Rodney, he stated, "We don't have much _time_."


	12. Chapter 12

_Author's Reply to Reviews:_

_LadyMo - Thank you ma'am._

_Entropic Cascade - No no no. You just have to wait til...well now, today. The next chapter is the last one. So, as Daniel once said, "Don't eyeball me." So glad you liked Rodney's freak out. I really enjoyed writing it. And I hear the voices too. So if it's a bad thing...which it probably is, I'm right there with you. And Jack/Sam - do you see how many characters I'm dealing with? I mean seriously, I can't focus on Jack and Sam every single chapter. There's no way. Especially with them all split up. _

_Harm Marie - Why, thank you very much._

_AT Fan - Ronan didn't get knocked out because I remembered the episode with Todd I think it was, yeah, Todd and all Todd's Wraith buddies stunned everybody and they said they had to stun Ronan like four times or something outrageous like that so I figured he could take more. And if you notice on the show, zats have varied degrees of efficiency depending on what the writers need. Sometimes one zat will knock somebody out for hours, sometimes they just have accute pain. So I went with acute pain for Ronan and Daniel. Cuz I mean, Daniel's been zatted how many times over the years? I figured he could handle it without getting knocked out too. lol._

_PatriciaS - It's always drama drama drama with that bunch, I agree. Unfortunately my story is coming to a close and my brain is officially fried as of the time being. It's kind of a working vacation I'm going on so I don't know how relaxed I'll be when I come back but maybe I'll think of a new story to start soon enough. Or maybe I'll get cracking on the mind numbingly LONG story that I tell everyone I'll never finish. lol._

_HAZMOT - Hey, don't forget about Teal'c. He's not with them either! lol_

_gater62 - Hurrying!_

_pain in the mikta - I happen to think I'm a very regular poster. lol_

_VinterNatt - To the very happy girl, you're welcome! I've really liked the pacing that I've gotten to do on the chapters where everyone is in different places. I like cutting back and forth between what's going on with each group cuz you're right, it's like an episode and it helps keep the pace quick and more intense. At least in my opinion._

_not a zatarc - I'm really excited to see their episodes together this season of Atlantis._

_Nessie1701 - Thank you._

_sg1star - Yes, you just have to love Rodney and his obnoxiousness (is that a word? lol)._

_atlantisbabe34 - :)_

_Liery - Thanks!_

* * *

"Oh. My. God."

"Wow!," Rodney exclaimed. "I wish I had a lab like this. I am so unappreciated."

The lab was massive. Tables upon tables with alien technology scattered in different stages of disarray. Rodney was in heaven. Now if only he could figure out how to take as much of it as possible with them.

Teyla saw the thoughts passing through Rodney's mind. "Rodney, we have very little time before the ship explodes. We must hurry and find the ZPM's and meet the others. There is no time for the rest of these things."

His widened eyes and quick nodding told her that her goal was accomplished. Rodney could stay on task very well with the threat of impending doom.

* * *

Ronon and John turned down the second set of hallways. Clank. Clank. Clank. Jaffa really did have the stupidest armor. How they ever conquered the Milky Way Galaxy was beyond John's understanding.

The teammates quickly diverted down a hallway to their left to avoid meeting up with the Jaffa patrol headed their way. The longer they could withhold their escape being known, the better. Ronon led down the new pathway while John guarded his six. They had to hurry and find another hall to go down or the Jaffa would see them in a matter of seconds. Ronon stopped, which was completely not part of the plan and John, who had been walking backwards, ran into his back. The sound of Ronon's blaster meant more Jaffa in front of them. Which was just great because now the Jaffa on their six were coming to see what all the hoopla was about.

Ronon grabbed the back of John's vest, pulling him into a new hallway to where the Jaffa wouldn't have a clear shot at them.

"How many on your side?," John asked as he shot one of his own down.

Ronon shot one square in the chest, felling him. "Five."

"I got about eight. Seven," he amended, taking another down.

Three brave or stupid Jaffa tried to barrel right up to their position and John had to quickly round out a slew of shots. Ronon leapt up from his position, aiming in both directions. When the smoke cleared, so to speak, all the Jaffa were down.

John stood up next to his friend. "Show off."

Ronon smirked.

* * *

"Found one!", Rodney called from his side of the lab.

"Just one?" Daniel's disembodied voiced asked from another section of the lab.

"No. Both. I just felt like saying one just because."

Daniel's head popped up from under a lab table for the sole purpose of glaring at McKay.

Teyla, in a third area of the lab, glanced upon a table with bindings for a humans arms and legs. Reminded of her experience with Michael, Teyla shuddered and quickly looked back at the table. In a glass cabinet, she could just make out what could be the other ZPM. Teyla broke open the glass on finding the cabinet was locked, and pulled out the crystal object.

"I have found the other ZPM," she called to the others.

Daniel hit his head on the bottom of the desk he was under. Rising from the floor rubbing the back of his head, he asked, "How much time do we have left?"

Rodney looked at his watch. "Seventeen minutes."

* * *

John and Ronon ran down another hallway.

"Okay. I'm officially lost," the latter admitted.

"Yeah." John glared at the gold inlaid walls. "All these damn hallways look alike. Let's try this way," he suggested, pointing down a hallway to their right with the tip of his P90.

Three more wrong turns and they finally agreed that they were headed the right direction. A sound of a staff weapon opening sounded behind them. Ronon was the first to react, whipping around so fast his dreadlocks twirled in the air. Even still, the staff fired before he could shoot his weapon. The hit shot him directly in the chest.

John shot down the Jaffa before the guard could shoot off another staff blast. Ronon staggered forward, his chest burning in pain. Three more Jaffa rounded the corner and John shoved Ronon against the wall and out of the way as he quickly finished off the others. Ronon's weapon fired again and John spun on his heels, seeing three more Jaffa behind him, one already on the ground from Ronon's hit. John took out the other two.

"Damn. These guys are like rats pouring out of a sewer," John muttered as he helped Ronon to his feet.

The big man staggered again, shaking his head to try and focus. He coughed, blood spraying into the air and coloring his lips.

"Oh, that's not good," John couldn't stop himself from saying out loud. "Come on, one more corner and then we're there."

Ronon shook John off of him. "I'm fine."

They rounded the corner together, taking out the Jaffa guarding the cells.

Five bodies fallen to the floor, Vala stood and wrapped her arms around the bars of her cell. "It's about time you boys showed up."

John opened the cell door.

Ronon looked over the three in the cell. Mitchell, Teal'c, and Vala. "Where's Colonel Carter?"

Teal'c stepped out of the prison, picking up a fallen staff. "Ba'al has her."

John handed weapons to Mitchell and Vala. "We need to find her fast. Rodney rigged a bomb to go off in," he looked at his watch, "about fifteen minutes."

Ronon coughed again violently, spewing more blood on his clothes. Teal'c eyed him in concern. "You must get to a sarcophagus."

"A what?", he rasped out.

John reloaded his weapon. "Talk on the way. Where would Ba'al have the Colonel?"

"This way," Teal'c directed, taking the lead.

* * *

Sam opened her eyes blearily against the light. Someone loomed over her but their face was obscured by darkness. Her mind tried to figure out where she was and then she remembered. Right as she was about to strike at her assailant, he spoke and he sounded remarkably like Daniel.

"Sam!", he shouted loudly, making her wonder how many times he'd said her name already.

Daniel physically heaved her out of the sarcophagus with his hands under her arms. Once standing, if you could call Daniel holding her up standing, Sam saw that all of the SG1/SGA1 team was together.

"You must enter the sarcophagus," Teal'c directed Ronon, moving the taller man forward.

Ronon planted his feet firmly where he stood. "I'm not getting in that thing."

His refusal was futile as he promptly lost control of his legs and passed out. Teal'c quickly grabbed for him before Ronon could hit the floor. With Mitchell's assistance, they lifted him into the sarcophagus and closed it.

John fidgeted restlessly on his feet. "How long will this take?"

"That is dependant on the severity of his internal injury," Teal'c replied, moving to guard the door with Cameron.

"How much time do we have left?" Daniel asked, still holding Sam up with his arm around her shoulders.

"Seven minutes," John and Rodney answered simultaneously.

Starting to come around, Sam asked, "Seven minutes til what?"

"The ship explodes."

Her eyebrows shot up. "Who's idea was that?"

Daniel released her, allowing her to stand on her own two feet and allowing him distance if he needed to escape a furious Carter.

"Mine. McKay implemented it though."

Sam looked at Rodney whose jaw dropped at the tattle. "And I gave us thirty minutes to get off the ship. Conan here," he gestured furiously at the sarcophagus, "wasn't supposed to get shot."

Everyone could see through the jibe that Rodney had been worried about his Satedan friend.

Alarms sounded throughout the ship.

"Shit," John swore.

"Looks like the rest of the calvery's realized we're not where we're supposed to be," Mitchell added needlessly.

The sarcophagus opened, a groggy eyed Ronon sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

John grabbed under Ronon's arm with one hand, prompting the man to quickly get out of the sarcophagus.

"C'mon. Gotta go. Time?," he called loudly to the others.

Rodney looked at his watch. "Uh, four minutes."

"Peachy," Sam muttered, taking the 9mm handed to her.

Handing Ronon back his blaster, John asked Daniel, "Didn't you say the beaming tech was on the other side of the ship?"

"Indeed," Teal'c answered for him, stepping out into the hall.

"So ...running would be good then."

Running while shooting, John clarified mentally as Jaffa rounded the corner. With nine people armed and ready, the Jaffa didn't stand a chance. The main thing they had to worry about was getting in each others way.

They got all the way to the last corridor before the room of their destination. Cam rounded the corner and whipped back so fast, he ran straight into Ronon's chest. A huge staff blast hit the far wall of the corridor Mitchell had just been in.

The following domino effect of people running into each other almost pushed Mitchell back in the open hallway. If it hadn't been for Ronon grabbing his shirt, he would have.

"Mounted staff gun, two side guards," Cam said in explanation to the askance looks from the team.

John and Ronon shared something silent between them and then they both nodded. John took a sliding dive out into the hallway while Ronon fired the Jaffa at the gun. John took out the two guards on either side and stood up, wincing as he grabbed his shoulder.

"Ya know, you make that look easy," he complained to Ronon as they made their way to the room.

"45 seconds," Rodney shouted as he entered the door, first of the group.

Cam and John took up weapons fire, covering the others as more Jaffa tried to take them out.

"We're in! Move it," someone shouted.

John and Mitchell covered McKay as he entered the code to activate the beam, all three diving in before it went off.

The extreme heat of the planet at first made John think that somehow they'd cut it too close and he was about to be incinerated. When that didn't happen, John opened his eyes and just caught the beginning of the explosion in space.

"I can't believe that actually worked," Vala said, looking skyward.

"Of course it worked," McKay replied a little indignantly. "Oh, and Dr. Jackson?"

"Yes?"

"Hazelnut."

Daniel raised his eyebrows in confusion and then remembered. Ah. Coffee. He smirked and nodded.

Sam was weary. The adrenaline from the escape drained out of her body to be replaced with bone tiredness and an emotional pit of pain. She stared at the crater where her husband had given up his life a little too long and then said quietly, "Let's go home."


	13. Chapter 13

_Author's Reply to Reviews:_

_AT Fan - A reward for your faith._

_Liery - Or else what? lol_

_PatriciaS - (pats muse on back) Muse has been contemplating ideas but is still demanding a leave of absense for the time being. She can be such a diva._

_LadyMo - What did you have in mind for Jack's 'piece of mind'?_

_Nessie1701 - And the finale, epilogue, so and and so forth..._

_Leilina - lol. I love the way you say that there's no way YOU'RE going to allow Jack to stay dead. Will you hold my fingers hostage to the keyboard if I don't comply with your demands? lol._

_VinterNatt - 'Right? Right?' love that. _

_gater62 - Thank ya much!_

_Entropic Cascade - I thought I was the only one who did that! When I read really fast paced parts of stories I find myself reading really fast to try and hurry and see whats next and then I have to go back and read it a few times to make sure I caught everything. lol. Thanks for the Daniel bit- I have to say I liked the line after that even more where Rodney's jaw drops at the tattle. It cracked me up to write that._

* * *

Sam woke up to birds cheerfully chirping away out the window. She cursed the sound, along with the brilliant sunlight beaming in through the windows ...and the familiar weight of an arm around her waist.

Sam's eyes shot open. There sleeping right beside her was Jack O'Neill.

She'd officially lost it. Maybe she was still in Ba'al's clutches and the escape and everything after had been some kind of bizarre new mental torture tactic of his.

Jack's breathing deepened, not quite a snore but close. His arm tightened around her waist, pulling her closer. All signs he was about to wake up. Jack had tell tale clues that Sam had come to know how to read to gage his morning mood. If he wanted to fight waking up, Jack would burrow his face in her neck, blocking out the day. And if he was ready to wake up, he'd start drawing little patterns on her back with his fingers. Sam suddenly decided she didn't care if he wasn't real. He was here, even if it was only in her mind.

Still, Sam was afraid if she touched him the illusion would end and he'd disappear.

"J..J..Jack?," she stuttered quietly.

A grunted 'mmm?' was her only reply from the still sleeping lump to her right. It was so 'Jack' that she smiled a little inanely, touching his face with the palm of her hand. He leaned into her touch, blinking his eyes open and smiling.

"Hey," he greeted her gruffly.

"Hey," she greeted back, tears in her eyes.

"Don't cry, Sam. I'm here. We made it."

"No." She shook her head. "_I_ made it. You died, Jack. I saw it happen. You're not ...you're not real."

"Hey." He grabbed her face with both hands. "Look at me. _We _made it. I'm really here, Sam. I promise. Had to take a little side trip to the realm of the glowy, but I'm here."

She wanted to believe him so badly.

"Trust me, Sam."

She nodded. "That's never been a problem, Jack."

He smiled and kissed her.

"You're really here," she said, still trying to convince herself.

"I promised you I'd do whatever it took."

At seeing her 'happy tears' as she liked to call them, Jack decided it was time to lighten the mood a little. "And if I had to come back naked, I for damn sure wasn't going to show up in the middle of the SGC like _some_ people."

It had the desired effect. She laughed, her tears spilling over to run freely down her face and she kissed him before he could say anything else.

Suddenly Sam jerked away mid kiss and hovered over him. "You do know I'm going to kick your ass for putting me through that, right?"

He smirked, though he was trying valiently to hold it back. "I was kind of hoping that my whole coming back from the dead thing would be a big enough distraction." He rolled them over so that he was now on top of her. No longer trying to hold back his smirk, Jack continued, "And did I mention the whole convenience of me being naked?"

"Well, I didn't say I was going to do it _now_ but later, you are definitely in for it."

He kissed her. "I think I can live with that."

The End

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Author's Note: When I started writing this, I had no idea how many references to other SG1 episodes would be in here. But as I continued writing and tried to think of ways for them to get to the next step in the story, I'd be like 'oh the dakara weapon would be perfect' or 'what if Jack could control the DHD like Adria did on The Quest' and the story became what it was.

I hope you liked and I hope I didn't butcher the SGA characters too much. I've never wrote them before now.

And I know, it's kind of open ended. You don't really see what happens when SGA-1 goes home. Are the Wraith really all gone? And then like Sam said, everyone would have to go through zatarc testing, in both galaxies. Are their more of Ba'al's minions? And I didn't bring Nate back in the picture. I kind of wanted the ending to just be about Jack and Sam though. So in my head, Sam asked Cassie or someone else to watch Nate the first night they got back from the ordeal because she didn't want him to see her so broken and she wasn't quite ready or up to telling him his father was dead just yet. And it's the next morning that this chapter's events take place. So it's a super short open ending, yes, but I still hope it was enjoyable.


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